Virus Replicon Particles as Rift Valley Fever Vaccines

Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus primarily infects animals but also has the capacity to infect humans. The disease causes abortion and death among RVF-infected livestock, resulting in substantial economic loss to people living in many parts of Africa and Arabian Peninsula. Currently, there is no commercial vaccine for RVF. CDC scientists have developed a RVF virus replicon particle (VRP) vaccine candidate. Research findings revealed that immunization of mice with a single dose of the RVF-VRP was found to be safe and elicited immune response that offered 100% protection following exposure to lethal dose of virulent virus. RVF-VRPs have the potential to become effective and efficient RVF vaccines in livestock animals and humans.

Potential Commercial Applications:		Competitive Advantages:
Rift Valley fever vaccine for livestock and/or humans VRPs may serve as useful laboratory tool to study the basic mechanisms of virus replication, assembly, kinetics, and virus maturation		Murine survival study showed single-dose immunization completely protected mice against a virulent RVFV challenge at 100,000-fold greater than the 50% lethal dose (LD(50)) Rapid onset of a systematic antiviral response suggests conference of early protection Low genetic diversity for RVF virus indicates a strong potential for broad-use effectiveness with this vaccine

Development Stage:

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

Related Invention(s):
E-254-2013-2


Inventors:

Brian Bird (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...

Cesar Albarino (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...

Stuart Nichol (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...

Kimberly Dodd (CDC)  ➽ more inventions...


Intellectual Property:
U.S. Pat: 9,687,542 issued 2017-06-27
PCT Application No. PCT/US2013/046250
US Application No. 14/408,389

Publications:
Dodd KA, et al. PMID 22345465

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

OTT Reference No: E-272-2013-0
Updated: Aug 8, 2016