TheraVectys (Institut Pasteur 28 Rue du Dr Roux, 75015 Paris - France)
Abstract : Zika virus, a member of the Flaviviridae family, is primarily transmitted by infected Aedes species mosquitoes. In 2016, Zika infection emerged as a global health emergency for its explosive spread and the remarkable neurological defects in the developing fetus. Development of a safe and effective Zika vaccine remains a high priority owing to the risk of re-emergence and limited understanding of Zika virus epidemiology. We engineered a non-integrating lentiviralvector(NILV)-based Zika vaccine encoding the consensus pre-membrane and envelope glycoprotein of circulating Zika virus strains. We further evaluated the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of this vaccine in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent mouse models. A single immunization in both mouse models elicited a robust neutralizing antibody titer and afforded full protection against Zika challenge as early as 7 days post-immunization. This NILV-based vaccine also induced a long-lasting immunity when immunized mice were challenged 6 months after immunization. Altogether, our NILV Zika vaccine provides a rapid yet durable protection through a single dose of immunization without extra adjuvant formulation. Our data suggest a promising Zika vaccine candidate for an emergency situation, and demonstrate the capacity of lentiviral vector as an efficient vaccine delivery platform.
Min Wen Ku, François Anna, Philippe Souque, Stéphane Pêtres, Matthieu Prot, et al.. A Single Dose of NILV-Based Vaccine Provides Rapid and Durable Protection against Zika Virus. Molecular Therapy, Nature Publishing Group, In press, Online ahead of print, pp.S1525-0016(20)30250-1. ⟨10.1016/j.ymthe.2020.05.016⟩. ⟨pasteur-02864026⟩