Protein Dynamics group uses state of art experimental and computational methods to elucidate the relations between protein conformation and function

Latest publication

Enterovirus antibodies during early childhood

In this article, we ran an in-house developed panel of enterovirus antigens as a 10-plexed immunoassay for paired serum samples for 58 children to study how enterovirus antibody responses develop during the first 36 months of our lives. We found that until six months of age the antibody levels steadily waned, presumably along with maternal antibodies, and then started to climb as the immune system starts to develop. We found RV-A and RV-C VP1 antibody levels to be the clearly higher than any other structural protein responses we studied. We also found certain VP1 antigen pairs, such as RV-A89 VP1 and RV-C3 VP1 to be more cross-reactive than others, e.g. CVB1 VP1 and E30 VP1, even though the former pair represent two different enterovirus species and the latter two both belong to the EV-B species. We also showed the more conserved non-structural 3C protease antibody levels to be well correlated with the cumulative number of enterovirus infections until two years of age.

Assessment of Enterovirus Antibodies during Early Childhood Using a Multiplex Immunoassay

Niila Jouppila, Jussi Lehtonen, Erika Seppälä, Leena Puustinen, Sami Oikarinen, Olli Laitinen, Mikael Knip, Heikki Hyöty, Vesa Hytönen

Microbiology Spectrum 2023, 11, e05352-22

https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.05352-22