BACKGROUND
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the single largest cause of viral pediatric bronchiolitis and pneumonia in the world; in 2015, 33.1 million RSV associated acute respiratory infections (ARI) in children resulted in 3.2 million hospitalizations and 59,600 deaths globally. Pursuit of a vaccine for this disease has been ongoing since the 1960s, but none have been successfully developed. A live vaccine candidate called M-null has a stringent safety profile and protects from RSB replication on ice. However, this has the drawback of inducing both pre-F and post-F antibodies; high levels of post-F antibodies can contribute to enhanced lung disease. There is a critical need for a safe and efficacious vaccine to provide protection against this deadly virus.
SUMMARY OF TECHNOLOGY Researchers at OSU have developed a novel method for enhancing the M-null live vaccine candidate. Pairing M-null with novel virus like particles (VLPs) developed at OSU, the immune response can reach a desired shift in preF/postF antibody ratios and an improved anti-G response. The combination of M-Null and VLPs increase the proportion of anti-preF antibodies, and focused the G-response to the most conserved region of the G complex across RSV strains. Preliminary tests of this unique method have been run in mice, and the results show potential to make M-null more efficacious and safer. This novel approach to enhance M-null with VLPs will open the avenue to the development of a human-safe RSV vaccine.
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