Vaccine platforms for the prevention of Lassa fever

Purushotham, Jyothi N.; Lambe, Teresa; Gilbert, Sarah C.

doi:10.1016/j.imlet.2019.03.008

Cited by 48 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…There are no FDA-approved LASV vaccines and current anti-LASV therapy is limited to an off-label use of ribavirin that has limited efficacy. LF has been included on the revised list of priority diseases for the WHO R&D Blueprint, and therefore there is an urgent need for accelerated research and development for LASV vaccines [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High crossreactivity of human T cell responses between Lassa virus lineages

et al. 2020

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Lassa virus infects hundreds of thousands of people each year across rural West Africa, resulting in a high number of cases of Lassa fever (LF), a febrile disease associated with high morbidity and significant mortality. The lack of approved treatments or interventions underscores the need for an effective vaccine. At least four viral lineages circulate in defined regions throughout West Africa with substantial interlineage nucleotide and amino acid diversity. An effective vaccine should be designed to elicit Lassa virus specific humoral and cell mediated immunity across all lineages. Most current vaccine candidates use only lineage IV antigens encoded by Lassa viruses circulating around Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea but not Nigeria where lineages I-III are found. As previous infection is known to protect against disease from subsequent exposure, we sought to determine whether LF survivors from Nigeria and Sierra Leone harbor memory T cells that respond to lineage IV antigens. Our results indicate a high degree of cross-reactivity of CD8+ T cells from Nigerian LF survivors to lineage IV antigens. In addition, we identified regions within the Lassa virus glycoprotein complex and nucleoprotein that contributed to these responses while T cell

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High crossreactivity of human T cell responses between Lassa virus lineages

et al. 2020

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“…These include various approaches, such as live attenuated arenavirus vaccines (e.g., the natural reassortant ML29 or recombinant Mopeia virus) 22 , 23 , viral vector-based vaccines (e.g., modified Vaccinia virus , vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), measles virus, rabies virus, and yellow fever virus) 24 – 29 , and DNA-based vaccines 30 , 31 . Both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses are assumed to contribute to vaccine-mediated protection; however, immune markers that correlate with protective immunity differ between vaccine platforms 32 . Notably, repeated immunization of nonhuman primates with purified LASV particles that have been inactivated by gamma irradiation failed to protect animals 33 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adjuvant formulated virus-like particles expressing native-like forms of the Lassa virus envelope surface glycoprotein are immunogenic and induce antibodies with broadly neutralizing activity

et al. 2020

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Lassa mammarenavirus (LASV) is a rodent-borne arenavirus endemic to several West African countries. It is the causative agent of human Lassa fever, an acute viral hemorrhagic fever disease. To date, no therapeutics or vaccines against LASV have obtained regulatory approval. Polyclonal neutralizing antibodies derived from hyperimmunized animals may offer a useful strategy for prophylactic and therapeutic intervention to combat human LASV infections. The LASV envelope surface glycoprotein complex (GP) is the major target for neutralizing antibodies, and it is the main viral antigen used for the design of an LASV vaccine. Here, we assessed the immunogenic potential of mammalian cell-derived virus-like particles (VLPs) expressing GP from the prototypic LASV strain Josiah in a native-like conformation as the sole viral antigen. We demonstrate that an adjuvanted prime-boost immunization regimen with GP-derived VLPs elicited neutralizing antibody responses in rabbits, suggesting that effective antigenic epitopes of GP were displayed. Notably, these antibodies exhibited broad reactivity across five genetic lineages of LASV. VLP-based immunization strategies may represent a powerful approach for generating polyclonal sera containing cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies against LASV.

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“…However, there are a number of candidate vaccines such as the Lister strain vaccinia virus, inactivated LASV, recombinant yellow fever vaccine and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus replicon platforms in evaluations and trials. 8 Chemotherapy for Lassa are largely limited to the use of ribavirin. 9 Ribavirin treatments are not cost-effective and are only useful during the early phase (⩽5 days) after the onset of symptoms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Need for preventive and control measures for Lassa fever through the One Health strategic approach

Abdullahi

Anka

Ghamba

et al. 2020

Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare

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Lassa virus (LASV) has increasingly been recognised as a significant public-health pathogen transmitted by rodents. LASV infection leads to life-threatening Lassa fever, which has high potential for severe morbidity and mortality. There have been several scientific efforts to understand the genomics and ecological epidemiology of Lassa. However, very limited studies have focused on the short- and long-term impacts of environmental factors, human behaviours and rodent activities on LASV transmission dynamics and control. Recently, a very plausible and ideal way to address the Lassa epidemic has been considered through the One Health approach. The One Health system of intervention is capable of providing better and comprehensive information necessary to address the complex interplay between human, ecological, and environmental determinants of LASV transmission, persistence and re-emergence. Thus, the aim of this article was to review critically the impacts of various environmental factors on rodent infestations, LASV transmission and how human activities contribute to the persistence of Lassa with regard to exploring how they could be harnessed for better understanding of Lassa prevention and control through a concerted One Health approach.

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Vaccine platforms for the prevention of Lassa fever

Cited by 48 publications

References 108 publications

High crossreactivity of human T cell responses between Lassa virus lineages

High crossreactivity of human T cell responses between Lassa virus lineages

Adjuvant formulated virus-like particles expressing native-like forms of the Lassa virus envelope surface glycoprotein are immunogenic and induce antibodies with broadly neutralizing activity

Need for preventive and control measures for Lassa fever through the One Health strategic approach

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