Abstract: Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) is the causative agent ofthe current outbreak of hemorrhagic fever disease in West Africa. Previously,we showed that a whole EBOV vaccine based on a replication-defective EBOV(EBOVΔVP30) protects immunized mice and guinea pigs against lethal challengewith rodent-adapted EBOV. Here, we demonstrate that EBOVΔVP30 protects nonhumanprimates against lethal infection with EBOV. Although EBOVΔVP30 is replication-incompetent,we additionally inactivated the vaccine with hydrogen peroxide; the chemicallyinactivated vaccine remained antigenic and protective in nonhuman primates.EBOVΔVP30 thus represents a safe, efficacious whole EBOV vaccine candidate thatdiffers from other EBOV vaccine platforms in that it presents all viralproteins and the viral RNA to the host immune system, which might contribute toprotective immune responses.
Link: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.abstract