Journal of virology
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Journal of virology · Oct 2017
Development of Virus-Like-Particle Vaccine and Reporter Assay for Zika Virus.
Recent worldwide outbreaks of Zika virus (ZIKV) infection and the lack of an approved vaccine raise serious concerns regarding preparedness to combat this emerging virus. We used a virus-like particle (VLP)-based approach to develop a vaccine and a microneutralization assay for ZIKV. A synthetic capsid-premembrane-envelope (C-prM-E) gene construct of ZIKV was used to generate reporter virus particles (RVPs) that package a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter-expressing West Nile virus (WNV) replicon. ⋯ VLP-based vaccines showed significantly better neutralizing antibody responses than those with their DNA counterparts. The RVP-based microneutralization assay worked similarly to the PRNT assay, with a rapid GFP readout in a 96-well format. Our VLP-based platform provides a source for a ZIKV vaccine and diagnosis that can rapidly be adapted to current outbreaks.