Evaluation of St. Louis encephalitis virus/dengue virus type 4 antigenic chimeric viruses in mice and rhesus monkeys.

ABSTRACT: To develop a live attenuated virus vaccine against St. Louis encephalitis (SLE) virus, two antigenic chimeric viruses were generated by replacing the membrane precursor and envelope protein genes of dengue virus type 4 (DEN4) with those from SLE with or without a 30 nucleotide deletion in the DEN4 3' untranslated region of the chimeric genome. Chimeric viruses were compared with parental wild-type SLE for level of neurovirulence and neuroinvasiveness in mice and for safety, immunogenicity, and protective efficacy in rhesus monkeys. The resulting viruses, SLE/DEN4 and SLE/DEN4Delta30, had greatly reduced neuroinvasiveness in immunodeficient mice but retained neurovirulence in suckling mice. Chimerization of SLE with DEN4 resulted in only moderate restriction in replication in rhesus monkeys

SUBMITTER: Blaney JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2562685 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature