Promising efforts to develop an mRNA vaccine against Zika

Abstract

Zika virus disease is the first and only flaviviral disease that was declared a public health emergency because of devastating birth defects following maternal infection. 1 Wilder-Smith A Osman S Public health emergencies of international concern: a historic overview. J Travel Med. 2020; 27taaa227 Crossref Google Scholar Since its peak in early 2016, the incidence of Zika virus cases has declined due to high population level immunity in affected countries. 2 O'Reilly KM Lowe R Edmunds WJ et al. Projecting the end of the Zika virus epidemic in Latin America: a modelling analysis. BMC Med. 2018; 16: 180 Crossref PubMed Scopus (41) Google Scholar However, Zika virus is still circulating at low levels in some areas and is likely to re-emerge in immunologically naive populations or in sites of previous epidemics once population immunity wanes. 3 Akrami KM de Nogueira BMF do Rosário MS et al. The re-emergence of Zika in Brazil in 2020: a case of Guillain Barré Syndrome during the low season for arboviral infections. J Travel Med. 2020; 27taaa165 Crossref Google Scholar , 4 Hamer DH Chen LH Zika in Angola and India. J Travel Med. 2019; 26taz012 Crossref Scopus (21) Google Scholar Great progress was made to rapidly advance several vaccine candidates into phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, including DNA 5 Wilder-Smith A Vannice K Durbin A et al. Zika vaccines and therapeutics: landscape analysis and challenges ahead. BMC Med. 2018; 16: 84 Crossref PubMed Scopus (60) Google Scholar and inactivated vaccines. 6 Wressnigg NV Hochreiter R Schneider M et al. A randomized, placebo-controlled, blinded phase 1 study investigating a novel inactivated, Vero cell-culture derived Zika virus vaccine. J Travel Med. 2022; taac127 Crossref PubMed Google Scholar The success of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 in the past 2 years has fuelled research in its potential use against Zika. We welcome the two phase 1 trials using the mRNA vaccine platform for Zika virus by Brandon Essink and colleagues, 7 Essink B Chu L Seger W et al. The safety and immunogenicity of two Zika virus mRNA vaccine candidates in healthy flavivirus baseline seropositive and seronegative adults: the results of two randomised, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging, phase 1 clinical trials. Lancet Infect Dis. 2023; (published online Jan 19.)https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00764-2 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Google Scholar published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The safety and immunogenicity of two Zika virus mRNA vaccine candidates in healthy flavivirus baseline seropositive and seronegative adults: the results of two randomised, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging, phase 1 clinical trialsThese findings support the continued development of mRNA-1893 against Zika virus, which was well tolerated at all evaluated dose levels and induced strong Zika virus-specific serum nAb responses after two doses, regardless of baseline flavivirus serostatus. Full-Text PDF