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. 2007 May 16;25(20):4093-102.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2007.02.038. Epub 2007 Feb 27.

A ML29 reassortant virus protects guinea pigs against a distantly related Nigerian strain of Lassa virus and can provide sterilizing immunity

Ricardo Carrion Jr  1 , Jean L Patterson, Curtis Johnson, Monica Gonzales, Carmen R Moreira, Anysha Ticer, Kathleen Brasky, Gene B Hubbard, Dmitry Moshkoff, Juan Zapata, Maria S Salvato, Igor S Lukashevich
Affiliations

A ML29 reassortant virus protects guinea pigs against a distantly related Nigerian strain of Lassa virus and can provide sterilizing immunity

Ricardo Carrion Jr et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Lassa virus (LASV) is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in West Africa annually. Genetic diversity among LASV strains is the highest among the Arenaviridae and represents a great challenge for vaccine development. Guinea pigs vaccinated with a ML29 reassortant vaccine experienced sterilizing immunity and complete protection when challenged on day 30 either with homologous virus or with the distantly related Nigerian isolate. Simultaneous vaccination-challenge or challenge on day 2 after vaccination also protected 60-100% of the animals against both strains, but without sterilizing immunity. These results indicate that simultaneous replication of ML29 and LASV attenuates the virulence of LASV infection.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Temperature, weigh and AST levels in plasma of strain 13 guinea pigs. A - C, acute LASV infection. D – F, vaccinated and challenged animals. Numbers of surviving animals to numbers of challenged animals are indicated in brackets.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Viremia, viral load in tissues, and humoral immune responses in vaccinated animals. A, viremia in vaccinated and control animals at different time points after challenge with LASV-803213/NIG. B, viremia and viral load in tissues of sacrificed guinea pigs. All animals died in control group (# 3). However, RNA samples were available only from blood and tissues of 3 animals. C, IgG ELISA. Plasma samples were collected at different time points from animals vaccinated with ML29 and anti-LASV IgG antibodies were determined by ELISA. D, western blotting. Plasma samples from three ML29-vaccinated animals were collected at day 42 after vaccination and incubated with antigen blots as described in Materials and Methods. Lane 1-3, blots were probed with plasma samples from vaccinated animals; lane 4, the blot was incubated with human reconvalescent anti-LASV serum [36]. NP and GP2, positions of LASV structural proteins.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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