Attenuation of Live-Attenuated Yellow Fever 17D Vaccine Virus Is Localized to a High-Fidelity Replication Complex.

ABSTRACT: The molecular basis of attenuation for live-attenuated vaccines is poorly understood. The yellow fever (YF) 17D vaccine virus was derived from the wild-type, parental strain Asibi virus by serial passage in chicken tissue and has proven to be a very safe and efficacious vaccine. We have previously shown that wild-type Asibi is a typical RNA virus with high genetic diversity, while the 17D vaccine virus has very little genetic diversity. To investigate this further, we treated Asibi and 17D viruses with ribavirin, a GTP analog with strong antiviral activity that increases levels of mutations in the viral genome. As expected, ribavirin treatment introduced mutations into the Asibi virus genome at a very high frequency and decreased viral infectivity while, in contrast, the 17D vaccine virus

SUBMITTER: Davis EH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6805994 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature