IMMUNOGENIC EBOLAVIRUS FUSION PROTEINS AND RELATED METHODS
Researchers at Stanford have developed a novel vaccine strategy for ebolavirus using fusion proteins composed of the virus’ glycoprotein.
Hemorrhagic fevers have become a major public health issue in Africa, the most notable of which being Ebola. Ebola has a notably high mortality rate and has led to over 20 outbreaks in the last 50 years since it’s discovery. Two viral vector vaccines have been developed but have not been widely distributed due to supply chain challenges in low resource settings. Additionally, these vaccines only protect against one strain of Ebola, while several other strains remain in circulation and regularly cause outbreaks. Novel agents are needed for long term control of the Ebola virus, ideally ones that can provide long lasting immunity for a large breadth of strains of the virus.
Stage of Research
The inventors have identified and tested sequences of the ebolavirus glycoprotein (GP) from several different strains of ebolavirus (EBOV). These GPs are engineered to contain artificially modified glycosylation sites and are joined to a ferritin subunit polypeptide. The ferritin subunit polypeptide allows GPs to self-assemble into oligomers. Nucleic acid sequences encoding the GPs joined to ferritin subunit polypeptides can be transduced into a mammalian cell in culture to produce large amounts of protein oligomers. These protein oligomers can then be purified and administered with adjuvants to humans to elicit a robust immune response to the GPs. Studies suggest that these GPs produce a robust antibody response in vitro and in vivo, suggesting these GPs elicit robust immunogenicity to several strains of EBOV.
Applications
- Prevention of EBOV disease by eliciting broad immunity to several different strains of the virus
Advantages
- Vaccine uses a combination of GPs from different strains of ebolavirus to elicit broad immunity.
- This vaccine can be stored at room temperature and could increase global access as compared to mRNA vaccines.
Stage of Development
Research- in vivo
Publications
N/A
Related Web Links
N/A
Keywords
infectious disease, vaccine, ebola virus
Technology Reference
CZ Biohub SF ref. no. CZB-267S
Stanford ref. no. S22-430
