Virus-Like Particle-Based Countermeasures Against Rift Valley Fever Virus

摘要: Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an arbovirus that causes significant morbidity and mortality in both humans livestock. With increased world travel the threat of bioterrorism, there a real risk RVFV spreading to naive geographical areas (Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., 73, 1979, 618; MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep., 49, 2000, 905). The introduction would cause critical public health, agricultural economic damage. Despite clear need for efficacious vaccine, are no United States (US) Food Drug Administration or US Department Agriculture approved vaccines against RVFV. To address this need, virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccine candidate was developed. First, non-replicating chimeric RVF VLP generated protected mice rats lethal challenge. This followed by development optimization conditions production VLPs insect mammalian cells. Immunological studies demonstrated VLP-based candidates elicit humoral cellular immune responses. Subsequent challenge using wild-type strain under high-containment showed can completely protect rats.