The Chimeric Binjari-Zika Vaccine Provides Long-Term Protection against ZIKA Virus Challenge

Jessamine E Hazlewood; Bing Tang; Kexin Yan; Daniel J Rawle; Jessica J Harrison; Roy A Hall; Jody Hobson-Peters; Andreas Suhrbier

doi:10.3390/vaccines10010085

The Chimeric Binjari-Zika Vaccine Provides Long-Term Protection against ZIKA Virus Challenge

Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Jan 6;10(1):85. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10010085.

Authors

Jessamine E Hazlewood¹, Bing Tang¹, Kexin Yan¹, Daniel J Rawle¹, Jessica J Harrison², Roy A Hall^{2

3}, Jody Hobson-Peters^{2

3}, Andreas Suhrbier¹

Affiliations

¹ Inflammation Biology Group, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD 4029, Australia.
² School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
³ Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, GVN Center of Excellence, The University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia.

Abstract

We recently developed a chimeric flavivirus vaccine technology based on the novel insect-specific Binjari virus (BinJV) and used this to generate a chimeric ZIKV vaccine (BinJ/ZIKA-prME) that protected IFNAR^-/- dams and fetuses from infection. Herein, we show that a single vaccination of IFNAR^-/- mice with unadjuvanted BinJ/ZIKA-prME generated neutralizing antibody responses that were retained for 14 months. At 15 months post vaccination, mice were also completely protected against detectable viremia and substantial body weight loss after challenge with ZIKV_PRVABC59. BinJ/ZIKA-prME vaccination thus provided long-term protective immunity without the need for adjuvant or replication of the vaccine in the vaccine recipient, both attractive features for a ZIKV vaccine.

Keywords: Binjari virus; Zika virus; chimeric virus; insect-specific flavivirus; mouse model; vaccine.

Abstract

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