A Single-Vector, Single-Injection Trivalent Filovirus Vaccine: Proof of Concept Study in Outbred Guinea Pigs

Abstract

The filoviruses, Marburg marburgvirus (MARV), Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV), and Sudan ebolavirus (SEBOV), cause severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates (NHPs). Monovalent recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV)-based vaccine vectors, which encode a filovirus glycoprotein (GP) in place of the VSV glycoprotein, have shown 100% efficacy against homologous filovirus challenge in rodent and NHP studies. Here, we examined the utility of a single-vector, single-injection trivalent rVSV vector expressing MARV, ZEBOV, and SEBOV GPs to protect against MARV-, ZEBOV-, and SEBOV-induced disease in outbred Hartley guinea pigs where we observed protection from effects of all 3 filoviruses.

Keywords: Ebola virus; Marburg virus; cross-protection; filovirus; guinea pig; trivalent; vaccine; vesicular stomatitis virus.