Vaccine Against Bat-Borne Virus Developed

Nipah virus is a type of RNA virus transmitted from animals to humans. The infection causes severe respiratory illness and symptoms including cough, headache, and fever—which can progress into encephalitis, seizure, and coma. Currently, there is no approved vaccine against Nipah virus available on the market. In recent years, outbreaks have been reported in Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, and India, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the virus as a priority pathogen needing urgent action.

In order to reduce the risk of Nipah virus becoming a global danger, it’s essential to develop a safe and effective vaccine against the virus for humans and animals. The researchers developed a novel recombinant vaccine called NIPRAB that shows robust immunization against Nipah virus in animal models. They published their findings today in npj Vaccines.

The team incorporated a gene from Nipah virus into a modified rabies vector, creating a viral particle that displays components of both viruses on its surface. The rabies vector is a well-established vaccine strain with little capacity to cause diseases in the nervous system. Because the immune system interacts with both viral components, it develops a reaction that can defend against both viruses.

In addition to the live version of the vaccine, which would be ideal for use in animals, the researchers also developed a chemically killed version of the vaccine so that the viral replication was completely abolished. They found that the inactivated vaccine induced immunity just as strongly as the live vaccine did, and would, therefore, be an ideal vaccine for immunocompromised individuals, such as HIV patients, pregnant women, and children.

“We have a vaccine that is safe and effective against Nipah, Hendra, and Rabies virus in mice,” says Matthias J. Schnell of Thomas Jefferson University. “Future work will focus on testing the vaccine on different species and establishing the right dose of injection. We also used the same vaccine platform to develop vaccines against several other emerging viruses, including a vaccine against Ebola virus, which is close to entering into its first clinical trial.”