Rabies G protein vaccine (CPL Biologicals)

Vesicular stomatitis (VS) virus causes an important clinical disease of cattle and horses in North America. In order for a vaccine to be useful in the control of VS, it must not only protect against disease, but allow ready differentiation of infected and vaccinated animals. In these studies, we evaluated neutralizing antibody responses in outbred mice, calves, and horses that received a DNA vaccine that expressed the glycoprotein (G) gene of VS New Jersey virus. The vaccine elicited antibody titers in individuals from each species, especially when two doses were administered, but the level of neutralizing antibody needed to confer protection is not known. In mice, co-administration of a plasmid that expressed interleukin-2 resulted in a significant, though modest, increase in antibody titers relative to use of the G gene vaccine alone. The effect of co-injecting putative immunostimulatory oligonucleotides was also evaluated. This treatment had no apparent effect in horses and was found to suppress immune responses to the G gene vaccine in mice. If the immune responses obtained in these studies prove to protect cattle and horses from infection with VS virus, DNA vaccination may become a useful tool for control of this disease.

We have constructed a non-primate lentiviral vector system based on the equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV). This system is able to transduce both dividing and non-dividing cells, including primary cultured hippocampal neurons and neurons and glia in the adult rat central nervous system (CNS), at efficiencies comparable with HIV-based vectors. We demonstrate that the only EIAV proteins required for this activity are gag/pol and that the only accessory protein required for vector production is rev. In addition, we show that the pol encoded dUTPase activity that is found in all non-primate lentiviruses is not required. The vectors can be pseudotyped with a range of envelopes including rabies G and MLV 4070A and can be concentrated to high titres. The ability of EIAV to infect mitotically inactive cells makes this vector an attractive alternative to the immunodeficiency viruses for gene therapy.