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.

Recombinant Chimeric Virus with Wild-Type Dengue 4 Virus Premembrane and Envelope and Virulent Yellow Fever Virus Asibi Backbone Sequences Is Dramatically Attenuated in Nonhuman Primates.

McGee CE, Lewis MG, Claire MS, Wagner W, Lang J, Guy B, Tsetsarkin K, Higgs S, Decelle T

1Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston; 2BioQual, Rockville, Maryland; 3Sanofi Pasteur, Global Research and Development, Campus Mérieux, Marcy‐L’Etoile, France.

Candidate vaccine ChimeriVax viruses are attenuated, efficacious, safe, and highly unlikely to be transmitted by arthropod vectors. Nevertheless, concerns have been raised about the use of these vaccines because of the potential for recombination between vaccine and wild-type (WT) strains. To evaluate the vertebrate pathogenicity of such a worst-case recombinant, ChimeriVax-dengue (DEN) 4 virus was chimerized with the WT Asibi yellow fever virus. In this worst-case scenario, chimeric viruses remained fully attenuated in nonhuman primates. We therefore conclude that, even in the highly unlikely event of "virulent" backbone reversion, the safety of ChimeriVax-DEN vaccines would not be compromised.

Published 12 February 2008 in J Infect Dis.
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