Rekombinante VZV-Impfviren mit erweitertem Zielspektrum

The introduction of live-attenuated vaccines has relevantly reduced the disease burden in the population from various infectious diseases. Nevertheless, there are some infectious diseases against which conventional vaccines have not yet been developed. Recombinant vaccines use plasmids or viral vectors. After application of the vector, recombinant antigens of a pathogen are produced intracellularly and, thus, an immune response of the vaccinated is induced.The varicella zoster virus (VZV) leads to chickenpox after primary infec­tion and can cause shingles (herpes zoster) after reactivation from latency. An effective and safe live attenuated vaccine based on the VZV strain vOKA is available for the prophylaxis of chickenpox.

In this work, for the first time, a recombinant vOKA strain could be generated that effectively replicates in a permissive human cell line and expresses the vaccine-relevant measles virus antigen hemagglutinin. This provides a recombinant bivalent vaccine candidate for further immunological studies in animal models. In addition, the expression cassettes prepared for the measles virus fusion protein and for the rubella virus antigens E1 and E2 can be used for the development of polyvalent vOKA variants by further adapting the experimental conditions.