Advances in dengue virus vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies

Abstract

The prevalence of dengue fever (DF) in many countries has become a global burden. The pathogen, dengue virus (DENV) contains four serotypes, and oftentimes the antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) due to the insufficient and imbalanced host immunity leads to severe dengue symptoms in heterologous secondary infections, posing a major difficulty ahead of modern medicine. Two technical routes, vaccine and monoclonal antibody (mAb) have been widely explored and testified at various levels. Tetravalent vaccines, especially chimeric live-attenuated viruses (LAV), have been proven to induce a relatively well-rounded immune response, while other categories including virus-like particle (VLP) are also of high potential. Therapeutic mAbs also have been shown to target epitopes that can be cross-neutralizing, covering not only individual structural and non-structural proteins but also quaternary conformation of virion surface. Undoubtedly limitations of previous research have directed the refinement of vector design, efficacy assessment, and other processes, although several challenges still exist today.