Virus-like particles expressing the nucleocapsid gene as an efficient vaccine against Rift Valley fever virus

Publication

Virus-like particles expressing the nucleocapsid gene as an efficient vaccine against Rift Valley fever virus

Journal Paper/Review - Oct 1, 2010

Pichlmair Andreas, Habjan Matthias, Unger Hermann, Weber Friedemann

Citation

Pichlmair A, Habjan M, Unger H, Weber F. Virus-like particles expressing the nucleocapsid gene as an efficient vaccine against Rift Valley fever virus. Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 2010; 10:701-3.

Type

Journal Paper/Review (English)

Journal

Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis 2010; 10

Publication Date

Oct 1, 2010

Issn Electronic

1557-7759

Pages

701-3

Brief description/objective

Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), a member of the family Bunyaviridae, regularly accounts for large and severe outbreaks among humans and livestock in Africa and Arabia. Therefore, safe and efficient vaccines are highly needed. Here, we report the production of recombinant virus-like particles (VLPs) that, in addition to their similarity to RVFV particles, are able to express the viral nucleocapsid (N) gene. A single inoculation of 1 × 10(6) of these N-VLPs was sufficient to protect 100% of mice from infection with a lethal dose of 1 × 10(5) PFU of RVFV. Our study demonstrates that N-VLPs can be considered as a safe and efficient vaccine against the emerging pathogen RVFV, and that VLPs that actively produce a viral antigen may be considered a strategy to improve the immunogenicity of VLPs in general.