Adenovirus vector produced Zika virus-like particles induce a long-lived neutralising antibody response in mice

Authors:

• Carrera, Julio
• Aktepe, Turgut E.
• Earnest, Linda
• Christiansen, Dale
• Wheatley, Adam K.
• Tan, Hyon-Xhi
• Chung, Amy W.
• Collett, Simon
• McPherson, Kirsty
• Torresi, Joseph
• Mackenzie, Jason M.
• Simmons, Cameron P.

Details:

Vaccine, Volume 41, Issue 33, 2023-07-25

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Countermeasures against Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemics are urgently needed. In this study we generated a ZIKV virus-like particle (VLP) based vaccine candidate and assessed the immunogenicity of these particles in mice. The ZIKV-VLPs were morphologically similar to ZIKV by electron microscopy and were recognized by anti-Flavivirus neutralising antibodies. We observed that a single dose of unadjuvanted ZIKV-VLPs, or inactivated ZIKV, generated an immune response that lasted over 6 months, but did not neutralize ZIKV infection of cells in vitro. However, when we co-administered the ZIKV VLPs with either Aluminium hydroxide (Alhydrogel®; Alum), AddaVax or Pam2Cys we observed that Alum was the most effective in a single dose regime, since it not only produced antibodies that neutralized the virus, but also generated a greater number of antigen-specific memory B cells. We additionally observed that the generation of the neutralising antibodies persisted for up to 6 months. Our results suggest that a single dose ZIKV VLPs could be a suitable single dose vaccine candidate for use in outbreak settings.