An international team has advanced research on an RSV vaccine in cattle, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News. 

For the current study, the research team created an investigational vaccine containing a single structurally engineered RSV protein that elicited high levels of neutralizing antibodies in mice. The protein is a stabilized version of the RSV fusion (F) glycoprotein in its initial conformation, called pre-F. Other vaccines have used the same protein in its final conformation (called post-F), but investigators found the immune response to that vaccine was much lower.

We used “a combination of structure-based design, antigenic characterization, and X-ray crystallography to translate human RSV F stabilization into the bovine context,” the authors wrote. “A ‘DS2’ version of bovine respiratory syncytial virus F with subunits covalently fused, fusion peptide removed, and pre-fusion conformation stabilized by cavity-filling mutations and intra- and inter-protomer disulfides was recognized by pre-fusion-specific antibodies, AM14, D25, and MPE8, and elicited bovine respiratory syncytial virus-neutralizing titers in calves >100-fold higher than those elicited by post-fusion F.”

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