Recent approaches in hantavirus vaccine development

Abstract

Rodent-borne hantaviruses are associated with two main clinical disorders in humans: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. Although hantavirus diseases can be life threatening and numerous research efforts are focused on the development of hantavirus prevention, no specific antiviral therapy is yet available and, at this time, no WHO-approved vaccine has gained widespread acceptance. This review will summarize the current knowledge and recent progress as well as new speculative approaches in the development of hantavirus vaccines.

Keywords::

• Andes virus
• Hantaan virus
• hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome
• hantavirus vaccines
• hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
• Puumala virus
• Sin Nombre virus

Financial & competing interests disclosure

P Maes is supported by a postdoctoral grant from the ‘Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO)-Vlaanderen’. 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.

Notes

With increasing clinical experience, many mixed pictures of ‘hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome’ are now noted.

HCPS: Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome; HFRS: Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.