Single-round infectious rotaviruses with deletions of VP7 or VP4 genes, based on SA11 and WC3 strain backbones, and their potential use as viral vectors.

ABSTRACT: Single-round infectious rotavirus, which lacks a gene essential for virion assembly, serves not only as a safe and effective rotavirus vaccine but also as an orally-administrable viral vector vaccine that induces mucosal immunity. Previously, we generated a single-round infectious rotavirus by partially deleting the viral VP6 gene, and demonstrated its potential as a promising vaccine platform. However, this system has several limitations; namely, low viral protein expression levels and safety concerns. Here, we addressed these challenges by introducing large deletions into the VP7 or VP4 genes, which are dispensable for viral protein expression but essential for virion assembly. These VP7- or VP4-defective viruses exhibited markedly higher protein expression in wild-type MA104 cells than

SUBMITTER: Kotaki T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12435675 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature