A Lassa Virus Live-Attenuated Vaccine Candidate Based on Rearrangement of the Intergenic Region
Abstract
Lassa virus (LASV), the causative agent of Lassa fever, infects several hundred thousand people in Western Africa, resulting in many lethal Lassa fever cases. No U.S. Food and Drug Administration-licensed countermeasures are available to prevent or treat LASV infection. We describe the generation of a novel LASV live-attenuated vaccine candidate rLASV(IGR/S-S), which is based on the replacement of the large genomic segment noncoding intergenic region (IGR) with that of the small genome segment. rLASV(IGR/S-S) is less fit in cell culture than wild-type virus and does not cause clinical signs in inoculated guinea pigs. Importantly, rLASV(IGR/S-S) protects immunized guinea pigs against an otherwise lethal exposure to LASV.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 28, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1128/mbio.00186-20
Entities
People
- Chengjin Ye
- Daisuke Motooka
- David X. Liu
- Elena Postnikova
- Jens H. Kuhn
- Jonathan Kurtz
- Juan Carlos De La Torre
- Kurt Cooper
- Luis Martinez-Sobrido
- Marisa St Claire
- Masaharu Iwasaki
- Randy Hart
- Ricky Adams
- Shu Qìng Yú
- Tracey Burdette
- Yíngyún Caì
Organizations
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- National Institutes of Health
- Osaka University
- Scripps Research
- United States Department of Defense
- University of Rochester