Glycoprotein E/gE (VZV)

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a neurotropic virus belonging to the Herpesviridae family. Primary VZV infection causes chickenpox and is followed by a life-long latent infection established mainly in the cranial and dorsal root ganglia. Reactivation of the virus is often associated with shingles (herpes zoster). Glycoprotein E (gE) is one of the known glycoproteins (gB, gC, gE, gH, gI, gK, gI) of VZV that is most abundantly expressed on the surface of virus and infected cells, playing an important role in viral replication and cell-to-cell spread. The strongly immunogenic gE can provide strong IgG signal in body fluid, which makes it ideal to be developed as an antigen for analysis of IgG antibodies. gE also demonstrates high potency as a vaccine immunogen and is formulated as the single viral envelope protein that constitutes the GSK VZV recombinant subunit vaccine Shingrix®.