Increased attenuation but decreased immunogenicity by deletion of multiple vaccinia virus immunomodulators.

ABSTRACT: Vaccinia virus (VACV)-derived vectors are popular candidates for vaccination against diseases such as HIV-1, malaria and tuberculosis. However, their genomes encode a multitude of proteins with immunomodulatory functions, several of which reduce the immunogenicity of these vectors. Hitherto only limited studies have investigated whether the removal of these immunomodulatory genes in combination can increase vaccine efficacy further. To this end we constructed viruses based on VACV strain Western Reserve (WR) lacking up to three intracellular innate immunomodulators (N1, C6 and K7). These genes were selected because the encoded proteins had known functions in innate immunity and the deletion of each gene individually had caused a decrease in virus virulence in the murine intranasal and intr

SUBMITTER: Sumner RP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5022402 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature