Filovirius vaccines

Abstract

Filoviruses can cause severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates (NHPs). Although there are currently no clinically proven treatments for filovirus disease, much progress has been made in recent years in the discovery of therapeutics and vaccines against these viruses. A variety of vaccine platforms have been shown to be effective against filovirus infection. This review summarizes the literature in this field, focusing on vaccines that have been shown to protect NHPs from infection. Furthermore, the uses of rodent models in vaccine development, as well as correlates of immunity, are discussed.

Acknowledgements

We thank Jens Kuhn, Amy Shurtleff and Gordon Ruthel for critical review of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the Joint Science and Technology Office program project number 1.1C0003_08_RD_B from the Department of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense program through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) (S.B.); and in part by an appointment to the Postgraduate Research Participation Program at the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the US Department of Energy and US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (S.B.B.).

The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the US Department of Defense or the US Department of the Army.

Figures and Tables

Table 1 Lethal laboratory animal models for filovirus infection

Table 2 Summary of filovirus vaccines that are efficacious in non-human primates