Pre-F-Stabilized RSV Vaccine, A New Vaccine On The Horizon?

Liu X, Liang B, Ngwuta J, Liu X, Surman S, Lingemann M, Kwong PD, Graham BS, Collins PL, Munir S. Attenuated human parainfluenza virus type 1 (HPIV1) expressing the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) fusion F glycoprotein from an added gene: effects of pre-fusion stabilization and packaging of RSV F. Journal of Virology, November 2017, vol. 91 no. 22 e01101-17 Available from: doi: 10.1128/JVI.01101-17

Summary

RSV vaccine development has come across many difficulties, with the instability of the pre-fusion RSV F protein being one of them. Xiang Liu and colleagues offer a potential solution to this problem by developing a pre-F-stabilized RSV vaccine based on an attenuated HPIV1 vector. The benefit of such a vaccine is that it specifically increases the immune response against the most effective RSV-neutralization epitopes, while the HPIV1 vector provides immunization against HPIV1. The authors developed four HPIV1 vectors. In hamsters, all of the vectors induced detectable RSV-neutralizing serum antibodies, but only the F1 vector was immunogenic for both RSV and HPIV1. It induced complement-independent high-quality RSV-neutralizing antibodies at titers similar to those of wild type RSV and provided protection against RSV infection.
This study describes a novel vector-based vaccine inducing robust protection against RSV, by developing immunity against the pre-fusion conformation of the RSV F glycoprotein.
This review was written by drs. Sjanna Besteman

Abstract on PubMed.