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Updated: Aug 11, 2026
In Vitro Analysis of Myd88-mediated Cellular Immune Response to West Nile Virus Mutant Strain Infection
Published on: November 27, 2014
A Chimeric Classical Insect-Specific Flavivirus Provides Complete Protection Against West Nile Virus Lethal Challenge
Hong-Qing Zhang1,2, Na Li1, Zhe-Rui Zhang1
1Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.
Abstract:
West Nile virus (WNV), an arthropod-borne flavivirus, can cause severe symptoms, including encephalitis, and death, posing a threat to public health and the economy. However, there is still no approved treatment or vaccine available for humans. Here, we developed a novel vaccine platform based on a classical insect-specific flavivirus (cISF) YN15-283-02, which was derived from Culicoides. The cISF-WNV chimera was constructed by replacing prME structural genes of the infectious YN15-283-02 cDNA clone with those of WNV and successfully rescued in Aedes albopictus cells. cISF-WNV was nonreplicable in vertebrate cells and nonpathogenic in type I interferon receptor (IFNAR)-deficient mice. A single-dose immunization of cISF-WNV elicited considerable Th1-biased antibody responses in C57BL/6 mice, which was sufficient to offer complete protection against lethal WNV challenge with no symptoms. Our studies demonstrated the potential of the insect-specific cISF-WNV as a prophylactic vaccine candidate to prevent infection with WNV.
