Yellow Fever Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Yellow Fever, including details on immunization, vaccines, symptoms, transmission.

Substitution of Wild-Type Yellow Fever Asibi Sequences for 17D Vaccine Sequencesin ChimeriVax-Dengue 4 Does Not Enhance Infection of Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes.

McGee CE, Tsetsarkin K, Vanlandingham DL, McElroy KL, Lang J, Guy B, Decelle T, Higgs S

1Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston; 2Sanofi Pasteur, Global Research and Development, Campus Mérieux, Marcy‐L’Etoile, France.

To address concerns that a flavivirus vaccine/wild-type recombinant virus might have a high mosquito infectivity phenotype, the yellow fever virus (YFV) 17D backbone of the ChimeriVax-dengue 4 virus was replaced with the corresponding gene sequences of the virulent YFV Asibi strain. Field-collected and laboratory-colonized Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were fed on blood containing each of the viruses under investigation and held for 14 days after infection. Infection and dissemination rates were based on antigen detection in titrated body or head triturates. Our data indicate that, even in the highly unlikely event of recombination or substantial backbone reversion, virulent sequences do not enhance the transmissibility of ChimeriVax viruses. In light of the low-level viremias that have been observed after vaccination in human volunteers coupled with low mosquito infectivity, it is predicted that the risk of mosquito infection and transmission of ChimeriVax vaccine recombinant/revertant viruses in nature is minimal.

Published 12 February 2008 in J Infect Dis.
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