Development of Recombinant Viral Vaccines for HFRS-Causing Hantaviruses
Abstract
Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a deadly disease caused by a several species of widely distributed (throughout Eurasia) Old World hantaviruses. Most prominent are Hantaan(HTNV) and Seoul (SEOV) viruses in Asia and Puumala (PUUV) virus in Europe. Worldwide it is estimated that between 60,000-100,000 cases occur annually with a small percentage of these cases resulting in death. As a starting point for an effective vaccine against these HFRS causing viruses, we will use a different, nonpathogenic virus, vesicular stomatitis virus(VSV), to express a protein from HTNV or PUUV by producing a recombinant VSV (rVSV). Although the VSV virus does normally cause disease in humans and the genetically altered vaccine rVSVs tested thus far also appear safe in normal animals, when VSV itself or some rVSVs enter the central nervous system or are used to infect animals that have immune deficiencies, severe disease or death can result. Due to the concerns raised by these findings we are also engineering rVSVs that are designed to be safer and less likely to cause disease even if they enter the CNS or infect a severely immunocompromised individual.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1190529
Entities
People
- Paul Bates
Organizations
- University of Pennsylvania