Infection with the Ebola virus (EBOV) causes an aggressive hemorrhagic disease in humans and nonhuman primates. Traditional approaches, such as vaccination with inactivated virion preparations, have had limited efficacy, whereas immunization with live-attenuated EBOV is not feasible due to the highly lethal nature of the pathogen. This has necessitated the development of other approaches towards an effective EBOV vaccine. Over the past decade, recombinant viruses expressing the EBOV glycoprotein (GP) have constituted the most promising platforms, as evidenced by their ability to protect naïve nonhuman primates from a lethal EBOV challenge. The vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is one such vector and is currently progressing through the clinical pipeline. This chapter presents methodologies for the design, cloning, rescue, and preparation of live, recombinant VSV vaccines expressing GP for research purposes.
Keywords: Ebola; Glycoprotein; Nonhuman primates; Vaccines; Vesicular stomatitis virus.