A Cloned Recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus-Vectored Marburg Vaccine, PHV01, Protects Guinea Pigs from Lethal Marburg Virus Disease.
Wenjun Zhu, Guodong Liu, Wenguang Cao, Shihua He, Anders Leung, Ute Ströher, Michael J Fairchild, Rick Nichols, Joseph Crowell, Joan Fusco, Logan Banadyga
Author Information
Wenjun Zhu: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada. ORCID
Guodong Liu: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada.
Wenguang Cao: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada.
Shihua He: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada.
Anders Leung: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada.
Ute Ströher: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada.
Michael J Fairchild: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada. ORCID
Rick Nichols: Public Health Vaccines, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Joseph Crowell: Public Health Vaccines, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Joan Fusco: Public Health Vaccines, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Logan Banadyga: Special Pathogens Program, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3R2, Canada. ORCID
Marburg virus (MARV) is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that belongs to the family. Despite having caused numerous outbreaks of severe hemorrhagic fever with high case fatality rates, there are still no clinically approved therapeutics or vaccines to treat or prevent MARV disease. Recombinant vesicular stomatitis viruses (rVSVs) expressing heterologous viral glycoproteins have shown remarkable promise as live-attenuated vaccine vectors, with an rVSV-based Ebola virus vaccine having received regulatory approval in the United States and numerous other countries. Analogous rVSV vaccine vectors have also been developed for MARV and have shown efficacy in several preclinical studies conducted in nonhuman primates. Here, we used a guinea pig model to confirm the protective efficacy of a cloned, rVSV-based candidate vaccine, termed PHV01, expressing the MARV variant Angola glycoprotein. Our results demonstrated that a single dose (2 × 10 PFU) of vaccine administered 28 days prior to challenge with a uniformly lethal dose of guinea-pig-adapted MARV variant Angola provided complete protection from death and disease. Moreover, protection was robust, with as little as 200 PFU of vaccine conferring significant protection. Not only does this study highlight the potential predictive value of the guinea pig model in the evaluation of MARV countermeasures, but it also demonstrates consistent and reproducible protection afforded by a clonal vaccine candidate. Indeed, this study identifies PHV01 as a suitable vaccine candidate for advanced development.
