Exploring of primate models of tick-borne flaviviruses infection for evaluation of vaccines and drugs efficacy.

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is one of the most prevalent and medically important tick-borne arboviruses in Eurasia. There are overlapping foci of two flaviviruses: TBEV and Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus (OHFV) in Russia. Inactivated vaccines exist only against TBE.

Safety evaluation of chimeric Langat/Dengue 4 flavivirus, a live vaccine candidate against tick-borne encephalitis.

The chimeric flavivirus LGT/DEN4 containing prM and E genes of naturally attenuated Langat virus with remaining sequence derived from low neuroinvasive Dengue 4 virus was previously produced and assessed as a candidate for live vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) [Pletnev and Men (1998): Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:1746-1751; Pletnev et al. (2000): Virology 274:23-31; Pletnev et al. (2001): J Virol 75:8259-8267; Wright et al.