Transfer of Anti-Rotavirus Antibodies during Pregnancy and in Milk Following Maternal Vaccination with a Herpes Simplex Virus Type-1 Amplicon Vector

Meier, Anita F.; Suter, Mark; Schraner, Elisabeth M.; Humbel, Bruno M.; Tobler, Kurt; Ackermann, Mathias; Laimbacher, Andrea S.

To circumvent these problems but maintaining the ease of application and safety, we decided to trigger the immune response using RVLPs produced within cells of the vaccinee but in the absence of RV genome synthesis. We used the herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) amplicon vector to deliver a DNA cassette with a single polycistronic messenger RNA which contains the coding sequences of the three capsid proteins VP2, VP6, and VP7, separated by internal ribosome entry sites for the production of the RVLPs. The HSV-1 amplicon vector system with its high transgenic capacity of up to 150 kb is safe as the transgenes are unable to replicate [15] , but allow delivery of synthetic DNA encoding any antigen of interest [16] . With this system, the time consuming and complex purification of VLPs is not required. Herpes simplex virus type-1 amplicon vector transduction triggering RVLP production was shown in previous studies from our laboratory but VP2 and VP7 were dramatically underrepresented compared to VP6 [17] .