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Immunization with an attenuated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus deleted in E protein protects against lethal respiratory disease
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Immunization with an attenuated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus deleted in E protein protects against lethal respiratory disease

Jason Netland, Marta L DeDiego, Jincun Zhao, Craig Fett, Enrique Álvarez, José L Nieto-Torres, Luis Enjuanes and Stanley Perlman
Virology, Vol.399(1), pp.120-128
03/30/2010
DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2010.01.004
PMCID: PMC2830353
PMID: 20110095
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2010.01.004View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) caused substantial morbidity and mortality in 2002–2003. Deletion of the envelope (E) protein modestly diminished virus growth in tissue culture but abrogated virulence in animals. Here, we show that immunization with rSARS-CoV-ΔE or SARS-CoV-Δ[E,6-9b] (deleted in accessory proteins (6, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9b) in addition to E) nearly completely protected BALB/c mice from fatal respiratory disease caused by mouse-adapted SARS-CoV and partly protected hACE2 Tg mice from lethal disease. hACE2 Tg mice, which express the human SARS-CoV receptor, are extremely susceptible to infection. We also show that rSARS-CoV-ΔE and rSARS-CoV-Δ[E,6-9b] induced anti-virus T cell and antibody responses. Further, the E-deleted viruses were stable after 16 blind passages through tissue culture cells, with only a single mutation in the surface glycoprotein detected. The passaged virus remained avirulent in mice. These results suggest that rSARS-CoV-ΔE is an efficacious vaccine candidate that might be useful if SARS recurred.
Respiratory virus Vaccine Coronavirus Severe acute respiratory syndrome T cell response Rodent model

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