The vaccinia virus based Sementis Copenhagen Vector vaccine against Zika and chikungunya is immunogenic in non-human primates

Natalie A Prow,Eri Nakayama,Jillian Geiger,Kevin Walters,Thomas E Morrison,Tamara H Cooper,Raj Kalkeri,Paul M Howley,Kerrilyn R Diener,Liang Liu,Preethi Eldi,Mary K Mccarthy,Andreas Suhrbier,John D Hayball,Fusataka Koide

doi:10.1038/s41541-020-0191-8

Abstract

The Sementis Copenhagen Vector (SCV) is a new vaccinia virus-derived, multiplication-defective, vaccine technology assessed herein in non-human primates. Indian rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were vaccinated with a multi-pathogen recombinant SCV vaccine encoding the structural polyproteins of both Zika virus (ZIKV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV). After one vaccination, neutralising antibody responses to ZIKV and four strains of CHIKV, representative of distinct viral genotypes, were generated. A second vaccination resulted in significant boosting of neutralising antibody responses to ZIKV and CHIKV. Following challenge with ZIKV, SCV-ZIKA/CHIK-vaccinated animals showed significant reductions in viremias compared with animals that had received a control SCV vaccine. Two SCV vaccinations also generated neutralising and IgG ELISA antibody responses to vaccinia virus. These results demonstrate effective induction of immunity in non-human primates by a recombinant SCV vaccine and illustrates the utility of SCV as a multi-disease vaccine platform capable of delivering multiple large immunogens.

Highlights

Poxvirus-based vaccine vector systems have a number of attractive features including (i) the ability to accommodate large recombinant immunogen payloads, (ii)a capacity for cold chain-independent distribution, (iii) the lack of DNA integration and (iv) the potential for needle-free vaccine delivery
The rash failed to resolve throughout the study and was bilateral, moderately red, flat and similar to those sometimes seen in naive non-human primate (NHP)
This event was unlikely to have been related to vaccination, a rash is an uncommon (≥1/1000 to

Summary

Introduction

Poxvirus-based vaccine vector systems have a number of attractive features including (i) the ability to accommodate large recombinant immunogen payloads (at least 25,000 base pairs), (ii)a capacity for cold chain-independent distribution, (iii) the lack of DNA integration and (iv) the potential for needle-free vaccine delivery (reviewed in ref. 1). ZIKA/CHIK induces antibody responses to CHIKV, ZIKA and VACV, and provides protection against ZIKV challenge. These two NHPs had the lowest neutralising titres of the SCV-ZIKA/CHIK-vaccinated animals on the day of challenge (Fig. 1b, Day 70).

Results

Conclusion