Vaccinia viruses: vaccines against smallpox and vectors against infectious diseases and tumors

Abstract

Less than 200 years after its introduction, widespread use of vaccinia virus (VACV) as a smallpox vaccine has eradicated variola virus. Along with the remarkable success of the vaccination program, frequent and sometimes severe adverse reactions to VACV were encountered. After eradication, VACV has been reserved for select populations who might be at significant risk for orthopoxvirus infections. Events over the past decade have renewed concerns over the potential use of variola virus as a biological weapon. Accordingly, interest in VACV and attenuated derivatives has increased, both as vaccines against smallpox and as vectors for other vaccines. This article will focus on new developments in the field of orthopoxvirus immunization and will highlight recent advances in the use of vaccinia viruses as vectors for infectious diseases and malignancies.

Keywords::

• ACAM2000
• clinical trials
• Dryvax
• IMVAMUNE
• MVA
• orthopoxviruses
• smallpox
• vaccine
• vaccinia

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Richard N Greenberg and Sharon E Frey for helpful suggestions and Laura E Fredenburgh for critical review of the manuscript. The authors wish to apologize to the many clinical investigators whose excellent studies could not be discussed herein due to space limitations.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Stephen R Walsh is supported by NIH grant K23AI085181. Raphael Dolin is supported by NIH grants U01AI069412, U19AI067854, U19AI078526 and U19AI066305. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.