
Limited protection against γ-herpesvirus infection by replication-deficient virus particles
Author(s) -
Clara Lawler,
Philip G. Stevenson
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of general virology
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1465-2099
pISSN - 0022-1317
DOI - 10.1099/jgv.0.001391
Subject(s) - virology , biology , virus , virus latency , viral replication , latency (audio) , vaccination , replication (statistics) , electrical engineering , engineering
The γ-herpesviruses have proved hard to vaccination against, with no convincing protection against long-term latent infection by recombinant viral subunits. In experimental settings, whole-virus vaccines have proved more effective, even when the vaccine virus itself establishes latent infection poorly. The main alternative is replication-deficient virus particles. Here high-dose, replication-deficient murid herpesvirus-4 only protected mice partially against wild-type infection. By contrast, latency-deficient but replication-competent vaccine protected mice strongly, even when delivered non-invasively to the olfactory epithelium. Thus, this approach seems to provide the best chance of a safe and effective γ-herpesvirus vaccine.