A synthetic biology approach for a vaccine platform against known and newly emerging serotypes of bluetongue virus

Nunes, S. F., Hamers, C., Ratinier, M., Shaw, A., Brunet, S., Hudelet, P. and Palmarini, M. (2014) A synthetic biology approach for a vaccine platform against known and newly emerging serotypes of bluetongue virus. Journal of General Virology, 29(7), pp. 912-920. (doi: 10.1128/JVI.02183-14) (PMID:25142610) (PMCID:PMC4248921)

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Abstract

Bluetongue is one of the major infectious diseases of ruminants and is caused by Bluetongue virus (BTV), an arbovirus existing in nature in at least 26 distinct serotypes. Here, we describe the development of a vaccine platform for BTV. The advent of synthetic biology approaches and the development of reverse genetics systems, has allowed the rapid and reliable design and production of pathogen genomes which can be subsequently manipulated for vaccine production. We describe BTV vaccines based on “synthetic” viruses in which the outer core proteins of different BTV serotypes are incorporated into a common tissue-culture adapted backbone. As a means of validation for this approach, we selected two BTV-8 synthetic reassortants and demonstrated their ability to protect sheep against virulent BTV-8 challenge. In addition, to further highlight the possibilities of genome manipulation for vaccine production, we also designed and rescued a synthetic BTV chimera containing a VP2 protein including regions derived from both BTV-1 and BTV-8. Interestingly, while the parental viruses were neutralized only by homologous antisera, the chimeric proteins could be neutralized by both BTV-1 and BTV-8 antisera. These data suggest that neutralizing epitopes are present in different areas of the BTV VP2 and likely “bivalent” strains eliciting neutralizing antibodies for multiple strains can be obtained.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Ratinier, Dr Maxime and Palmarini, Professor Massimo and Shaw, Dr Andrew
Authors: Nunes, S. F., Hamers, C., Ratinier, M., Shaw, A., Brunet, S., Hudelet, P., and Palmarini, M.
College/School:College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity
College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Infection & Immunity > Centre for Virus Research
Journal Name:Journal of General Virology
Publisher:Society for General Microbiology
ISSN:0022-1317
ISSN (Online):1098-5514
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2014 Nunes et al.
First Published:First published in Journal of Virology 29(7):912-920
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
536461Improving existing vaccine platforms to minimise the economic impact of emerging Bluetongue virus (BTV) serotypesMassimo PalmariniBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)BB/I003886/1MVLS III - CENTRE FOR VIRUS RESEARCH