Keele Research Repository
Explore the Repository
Kautz, TF, Guerbois, M, Khanipov, K, Patterson, EI, Langsjoen, RM, Yun, R, Warmbrod, KL, Fofanov, Y, Weaver, SC and Forrester, NL (2018) Low-fidelity Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus polymerase mutants to improve live-attenuated vaccine safety and efficacy. Virus evolution, 4. vey004 - vey004. ISSN 2057-1577
VE low fidelity.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.
Download (1MB) | Preview
Abstract
During RNA virus replication, there is the potential to incorporate mutations that affect virulence or pathogenesis. For live-attenuated vaccines, this has implications for stability, as replication may result in mutations that either restore the wild-type phenotype via reversion or compensate for the attenuating mutations by increasing virulence (pseudoreversion). Recent studies have demonstrated that altering the mutation rate of an RNA virus is an effective attenuation tool. To validate the safety of low-fidelity mutations to increase vaccine attenuation, several mutations in the RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp) were tested in the live-attenuated Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus vaccine strain, TC-83. Next generation sequencing after passage in the presence of mutagens revealed a mutant containing three mutations in the RdRp, TC-83 3x, to have decreased replication fidelity, while a second mutant, TC-83 4x displayed no change in fidelity, but shared many phenotypic characteristics with TC-83 3x. Both mutants exhibited increased, albeit inconsistent attenuation in an infant mouse model, as well as increased immunogenicity and complete protection against lethal challenge of an adult murine model compared with the parent TC-83. During serial passaging in a highly permissive model, the mutants increased in virulence but remained less virulent than the parent TC-83. These results suggest that the incorporation of low-fidelity mutations into the RdRp of live-attenuated vaccines for RNA viruses can confer increased immunogenicity whilst showing some evidence of increased attenuation. However, while in theory such constructs may result in more effective vaccines, the instability of the vaccine phenotype decreases the likelihood of this being an effective vaccine strategy.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | low-fidelity, Venezuelan, virus polymerase, vaccine, efficacy. |
Subjects: | Q Science > Q Science (General) R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > R Medicine (General) > R735 Medical education. Medical schools. Research |
Divisions: | Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Life Sciences |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 26 Feb 2020 12:40 |
Last Modified: | 01 Mar 2021 15:32 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/7699 |