A candidate tick-borne encephalitis virus vaccine based on virus-like particles induces specific cellular and humoral immunity in mice

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an important zoonotic viral disease transmitted by ticks. In recent decades, global climate change has increased human exposure to ticks, and mortality rates have gradually risen. Effective vaccines are essential for controlling TBE as specific antiviral treatment is unavailable. Vaccine candidates based on virus-like particles (VLPs) have previously been demonstrated to be efficient in eliciting excellent immune responses against influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2. Here, we constructed TBE virus (TBEV) VLPs containing the envelope and membrane proteins derived from the Far Eastern TBEV strain (WH2012) using an insect cell-baculovirus expression system. Induction of immune responses was investigated in mice following intramuscular injection with the TBEV VLPs vaccine candidates formulated of Poly(I:C) & Montanide ISA 201VG combination adjuvants. Mice produced memory T-cells and serum-specific IgG antibodies that averaged up to 1:10 4.6 and remained at 1:10 4 (mean) for 24 weeks after three immunizations. TBEV VLPs vaccine was able to provide long-term antibody protection against TBEV, making it a promising subunit vaccine candidate for this disease.