An Envelope-Modified Tetravalent Dengue Virus-Like-Particle Vaccine Has Implications for Flavivirus Vaccine Design.

Dengue viruses (DENV) infect 50 to 100 million people each year. The spread of DENV-associated infections is one of the most serious public health problems worldwide, as there is no widely available vaccine or specific therapeutic for DENV infections. To address this, we developed a novel tetravalent dengue vaccine by utilizing virus-like particles (VLPs).

Development of a Novel Virus-Like Particle Vaccine Platform That Mimics the Immature Form of Alphavirus.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) are noninfectious multiprotein structures that are engineered to self-assemble from viral structural proteins. Here, we developed a novel VLP-based vaccine platform utilizing VLPs from the chikungunya virus. We identified two regions within the envelope protein, a structural component of chikungunya, where foreign antigens can be inserted without compromising VLP structure.