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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2024.11.20.624603

Vaccination with a Replication-Dead Murine Gammaherpesvirus Lacking Viral Pathogenesis Genes Inhibits WT Virus Infection

Mitra, D.·Oldenburg, D. G.·Forrest, J. C.·Krug, L. T.
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Abstract

Gammaherpesviruses are oncogenic pathogens that establish lifelong infections. There are no FDA-approved vaccines against Epstein-Barr virus or Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus. Murine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV68) infection of mice provides a system for investigating of gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis and testing vaccine strategies. Prime-boost vaccination with a replication-dead virus (RDV) that does not express the essential replication and transactivator protein (RTA) encoded by ORF50 (RDV-50.stop) protected against WT virus replication and reduce latency in C57BL/6 mice and prevented lethal disease in Ifnar1-/- mice. To further improve the RDV vaccine and more closely model KSHV vaccine design, we generated an RDV lacking the unique M1-M4 genes and the non-coding tRNA-miRNA-encoded RNAs (TMERs) 6, 7, and 8 that collectively promote latency of MHV68 in vivo. Prime-boost vaccination of mice with RDV-50.stop{Delta}M1-M4 elicited neutralizing antibodies and virus-specific CD8 T-cell responses in lungs and spleens, the respective sites of acute replication and latency, that were comparable to RDV-50.stop vaccination. When challenged with WT MHV68, vaccinated mice exhibited a near-complete block of lytic replication and a reduction in latency and reactivation. We conclude that major determinants of MHV68 pathogenesis are not required components for eliciting a protective immune response.

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Mitra, D., Oldenburg, D. G., Forrest, J. C., Krug, L. T.. 2024-11-21. Vaccination with a Replication-Dead Murine Gammaherpesvirus Lacking Viral Pathogenesis Genes Inhibits WT Virus Infection. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.20.624603

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