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Viruses. 2019 Oct 11;11(10). pii: E933. doi: 10.3390/v11100933. A Bivalent Live-Attenuated Vaccine for the Prevention of Equine Influenza Virus.
Blanco-Lobo P1, Rodriguez L2,3, Reedy S4, Oladunni FS5, Nogales A6,7, Murcia PR8, Chambers TM9, Martinez-Sobrido L10.
Author information
1 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. piblanlo@gmail.com. 2 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. laurita85oviedo@hotmail.com. 3 Agencia Espa?ola de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios, E28022 Madrid, Spain. laurita85oviedo@hotmail.com. 4 Department of Veterinary Science, Gluck Equine Research Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA. sereed0@uky.edu. 5 Department of Veterinary Science, Gluck Equine Research Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA. kanmi01@gmail.com. 6 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. nogales.aitor@inia.es. 7 Center for Animal Health Research- National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, Valdeolmos, 28130 Madrid, Spain. nogales.aitor@inia.es. 8 MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1AF, UK. Pablo.Murcia@glasgow.ac.uk. 9 Department of Veterinary Science, Gluck Equine Research Center, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546, USA. Thomas.Chambers@uky.edu. 10 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. luis_martinez@urmc.rochester.edu.
Abstract
Vaccination remains the most effective approach for preventing and controlling equine influenza virus (EIV) in horses. However, the ongoing evolution of EIV has increased the genetic and antigenic differences between currently available vaccines and circulating strains, resulting in suboptimal vaccine efficacy. As recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the inclusion of representative strains from clade 1 and clade 2 Florida sublineages of EIV in vaccines may maximize the protection against presently circulating viral strains. In this study, we used reverse genetics technologies to generate a bivalent EIV live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). We combined our previously described clade 1 EIV LAIV A/equine/Ohio/2003 H3N8 (Ohio/03 LAIV) with a newly generated clade 2 EIV LAIV that contains the six internal genes of Ohio/03 LAIV and the HA and NA of A/equine/Richmond/1/2007 H3N8 (Rich/07 LAIV). The safety profile, immunogenicity, and protection efficacy of this bivalent EIV LAIV was tested in the natural host, horses. Vaccination of horses with the bivalent EIV LAIV, following a prime-boost regimen, was safe and able to confer protection against challenge with clade 1 (A/equine/Kentucky/2014 H3N8) and clade 2 (A/equine/Richmond/2007) wild-type (WT) EIVs, as evidenced by a reduction of clinical signs, fever, and virus excretion. This is the first description of a bivalent LAIV for the prevention of EIV in horses that follows OIE recommendations. In addition, since our bivalent EIV LAIV is based on the use of reverse genetics approaches, our results demonstrate the feasibility of using the backbone of clade 1 Ohio/03 LAIV as a master donor virus (MDV) for the production and rapid update of LAIVs for the control and protection against other EIV strains of epidemiological relevance to horses.
KEYWORDS:
equine influenza virus; live-attenuated influenza vaccine; master donor virus; recombinant virus; reverse genetics techniques
PMID: 31614538 DOI: 10.3390/v11100933
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