Laboratory/Pre-clinical Studies Of Parainfluenza Viruses

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Abstract

Progress has been made this year on the development of vaccine candidates for PIV1 and PIV2. PIV1 and PIV2 are important agents of pediatric respiratory tract disease. We are developing live-attenuated vaccines against these viruses. We previously constructed a PIV3/PIV1 antigenic chimeric virus, designated rPIV3-1, in which the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) and fusion (F) proteins of wild type PIV3 were replaced by their PIV1 counterparts. In the present study, rPIV3-1 was used as a vector to express the HN protein of PIV2 to generate a single virus capable of inducing immunity to both PIV1 and PIV2. The PIV2 HN open reading frame was expressed from an extra gene cassette, under the control of PIV3 cis-acting transcription signals, inserted between the F and HN genes of rPIV3-1. The recombinant derivative, designated rPIV3-1.2HN, was readily recovered and exhibited a level of temperature sensitivity and in vitro growth similar to that of its parental virus. The rPIV3-1.2HN virus was restricted in replication in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts of hamsters compared to rPIV3-1, identifying an attenuating effect of the PIV2 HN insert. In hamsters, rPIV3-1.2HN elicited serum antibodies to both PIV1 and PIV2 and induced resistance against challenge with wild type PIV1 or PIV2. Thus, rPIV3-1.2HN, a virus attenuated solely by the insertion of the PIV2 HN gene, functioned as a live attenuated bivalent vaccine candidate against both PIV1 and PIV2. Progress has also been made this year on the use of recombinant PIVs as vectors of other viral antigens. The chimeric recombinant virus rHPIV3-NB, a version of human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3) that is attenuated due to the presence of the bovine (B) PIV3 nucleocapsid (N) protein open reading frame (ORF) in place of the HPIV3 N ORF, was modified to encode the measles virus hemagglutinin (HA) inserted as an additional, supernumerary gene between the HPIV3 P and M genes. This recombinant, designated rHPIV3-NBHA, replicated like its attenuated rHPIV3-NB parent virus in vitro and in the upper and lower respiratory tract of rhesus monkeys indicating that the insertion of the measles virus HA did not further attenuate rHPIV3-NB in vitro or in vivo. Monkeys immunized with rHPIV3-NBHA developed a vigorous immune response to both measles virus and HPIV3, with serum antibody titers to both measles virus (neutralizing antibody) and HPIV3 (hemagglutination inhibiting antibody) of over 1:500. An attenuated HPIV3 expressing a major protective antigen of measles virus provides a method for immunization against measles by the intranasal route, a route that has been shown with HPIV3 and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines to be relatively refractory to the neutralizing and immunosuppressive effects of maternally derived virus-specific serum antibodies. It should now be possible to induce a protective immune response against measles virus in six-month-old infants, an age group that in developing areas of the world is not responsive to the current measles virus vaccine. The usefulness of a bovine/human PIV3 antigenic chimeric virus expressing the protective antigens of RSV as a vaccine for both RSV and PIV3 was demonstrated and is described in a separate report.