Tetravalent microprojection-based dengue chimeric virus vaccine raises potent neutralising antibodies in mice

Dengue virus (DENV) is endemic throughout the tropical regions of the world. Due to the risk posed to the population living in dengue-endemic areas, the development of a dengue vaccine has been considered a high priority by the WHO for the past 50 years. The development of a new chimeric viral platform, based on the insect-specific orthoflavivirus, Binjari virus (BinJV) has facilitated the production of multiple orthoflavivirus vaccine candidates. This study describes the evaluation of four candidate chimeric dengue virus vaccines (BinJ/DENV-prME) delivered as either a monovalent or tetravalent vaccine formulations via an alternative delivery method, the high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP). These chimeric viruses elicited potent neutralising antibodies against both homologous and heterologous serotypes and were raised to equal levels, with no immunodominance observed for any serotype. When coupled with the HD-MAP, enhanced antibody kinetics were observed, resulting in higher levels of neutralising antibodies elicited following a single dose.