High-Titer, Fast-Growth Chimeric Dengue/West Nile Viruses for Vaccine and Diagnostics Development

Mosquito-transmitted dengue virus is one of the leading causes of illness in the tropics and subtropics. There is currently no vaccine available and a number of DENV diagnostic and research applications depend on the production of large amounts of these viruses. However, due to the slow growing nature of DENVs these protocols are very time-consuming.

Researchers at the CDC have engineered stable, rapidly growing dengue-like viruses by combining the fast replicative ability of the West Nile virus with the immunogenic premembrane and envelope surface proteins of DENV serotypes 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. These DENV structural features are involved in a number of biological functions including virus-cell attachment and initiation of virus-specific antibody production. In turn, the chimeric viruses are more infectious and virulent than wild type DENV, but they do respond similarly in neutralization assays. The investigators also describe methods to use the inactivated form of these chimeras to elicit protective immune responses. Thus, these chimeric viruses can be used to enhance the efficiency of DENV diagnostics, vaccine development and testing, and basic dengue virology.

Potential Commercial Applications:		Competitive Advantages:
Dengue virus diagnostics Inactivated dengue vaccine development and testing Dengue virus-related biomedical research		Faster production of dengue-like viruses for more efficient use in many applications. Methods and inactivated compositions of chimeric viruses are described for use in DENV vaccine development.

Development Stage:

• In vitro data available
• In vivo data available (animal)

Inventors:

Claire Kinney (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...


Intellectual Property:
U.S. Pat: 10,428,313 issued 2019-10-01
PCT Application No. PCT/US2015/036728
US Application No. 62/015,265

Publications:
Osorio JE, et al. PMID 21633037
Huang CY, et al. PMID 15919884

Licensing Contact:
Jeremiah Mitzelfelt,
Email: jeremiah.mitzelfelt@nih.gov
Phone: 301-443-8518

OTT Reference No: E-168-2014-0
Updated: Nov 14, 2014