[Use of polymeric suspensions as a viral sorbent to detect cattle serum antibodies].

The paper shows it possible to use stained polymeric microspheres, 1.7 microm in diameter, that contain viruses onto the surface, in the latex agglutination test to detect antibodies to the bovine serum viruses of infective rhinotracheitis, parainfluenza-3, viral diarrhea, respiratory syncytial infection, and adenoviral infection.

Mucosal immunisation of African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) with an attenuated parainfluenza virus expressing the SARS coronavirus spike protein for the prevention of SARS.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 was caused by a previously unknown coronavirus-SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). We have developed an experimental SARS vaccine for direct immunisation of the respiratory tract, the major site of SARS- coronavirus transmission and disease. METHODS: We expressed the complete SARS coronavirus envelope spike (S) protein from a recombinant attenuated parainfluenza virus (BHPIV3) that is being developed as a live attenuated, intranasal paediatric vaccine against human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3). We immunised eight African green monkeys, four with a single dose of BHPIV3/ SARS-S and four with a control, BHPIV3/Ctrl, administered via the respiratory tract. A SARS-coronavirus challenge was given to all monkeys 28 days after immunisation. FINDINGS: Immunisation of animals with BHPIV3/SARS-S induced the production of SARS-coronavirus-neutralising serum antibodies, indicating that a systemic immune response resulted from mucosal immunisation. After challenge with SARS coronavirus, all monkeys in the control group shed SARS coronavirus, with shedding lasting 5-8 days. No viral shedding occurred in the group immunised with BHPIV3/SARS-S. INTERPRETATION: A vectored mucosal vaccine expressing the SARS-coronavirus S protein alone may be highly effective in a single-dose format for the prevention of SARS.

Bovine parainfluenza virus type 3 (PIV3) expressing the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) attachment and fusion proteins protects hamsters from challenge with human PIV3 and RSV.

Parainfluenza virus type 3 (PIV3) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are the main causes of ubiquitous acute respiratory diseases of infancy and early childhood, causing 20-25 % of pneumonia and 45-50 % of bronchiolitis in hospitalized children. The primary goal of this study was to create an effective and safe RSV vaccine based on utilizing attenuated bovine PIV3 (bPIV3) as a virus vector backbone. bPIV3 had been evaluated in human clinical trials and was shown to be attenuated and immunogenic in children as young as 2 months of age. The ability of bPIV3 to function as a virus vaccine vector was explored further by introducing the RSV attachment (G) and fusion (F) genes into the bPIV3 RNA genome. The resulting virus, bPIV3/RSV(I), contained an insert of 2900 nt, comprising two translationally competent transcription units. Despite this increase in genetic material, the virus replicated to high titres in Vero cells. This recombinant virus expressed the RSV G and F proteins sufficiently to evoke a protective immune response in hamsters upon challenge with RSV or human PIV3 and to elicit RSV neutralizing and PIV3 haemagglutinin inhibition serum antibodies. In effect, a bivalent vaccine was produced that could protect vaccinees from RSV as well as PIV3. Such a vaccine would vastly reduce the respiratory disease burden, the associated hospitalization costs and, most importantly, decrease morbidity and mortality of infants, immunocompromised individuals and the elderly.