A synthetic porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome unprecedented levels of heterologous protection

Authors

Hiep Vu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Fangrui Ma, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
William W. Laegreid, University of WyomingFollow
Asit K. Pattnaik, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David Steffen, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Alan R. Doster, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Fernando A. Osorio, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2016

Citation

JVI Accepted Manuscript Posted Online 23 September 2015 J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.01657-15

Comments

Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

Current vaccines do not provide sufficient levels of protection against divergent porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) strains circulating in the field, mainly due to the substantial variation of the viral genome. We describe here a novel approach to generate a PRRSV vaccine candidate that could confer unprecedented levels of heterologous protection against divergent PRRSV isolates. Using a set of 59 non-redundant, full genome sequences of type-2 PRRSV, a consensus genome (designated as PRRSV-CON) was these 59 PRRSV full genome sequences, followed by selecting the most common nucleotide found at each position of the alignment. Next, the synthetic PRRSV-CON virus was generated through the use of reverse genetics. The PRRSV-CON virus replicates as efficiently as our prototype PRRSV strain FL12, both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, when inoculated in pigs, the PRRSV-CON virus confers significantly broader levels of heterologous protection than the wild-type PRRSV. Collectively, our data demonstrates that the PRRSV-CON virus can serve as an excellent candidate for the development of a broadly protective PRRS vaccine.

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