Rotavirus Vaccines: New Strategies and Approaches

Abstract

Rotavirus infection is a rotavirus-associated disease. It is the main cause of severe diarrhea among children all over the world and one of the factors influencing the infant mortality. Today, only live attenuated vaccines are widely used for vaccination against rotavirus infection. Existing vaccines have demonstrated their effectiveness, but they have a number of side effects, primarily the risk of intussusception. Complications associated with the use of existing vaccines are usually associated with oral administration of drugs and the replication of attenuated live vaccines in the human intestine. In this regard, there is a need to design modern, effective and safe vaccines against rotavirus infection, unable to reproduce (to replicate) in the human body. Currently, modern vaccines against rotavirus infection are being developed and tested actively. These are recombinant vaccines with parenteral administration. The complicated antigenic structure of rotavirus is one of the main problems for the design of such recombinant vaccines. This review discusses the genetic and antigenic diversity of rotavirus strains and the geographical location of their epidemically significant variants. The role of capsid proteins in the formation of an immune response to the virus and the current state of development of new candidate recombinant vaccines against rotavirus infection are considered.

Novel antigen panel for modern broad-spectrum recombinant rotavirus A vaccine

“…Although the problems of low efficacy of live attenuated vaccines in countries with high infant mortality are likely to be related to a number of factors [ 18 ], it should be noted in particular that there is a significant difference in serotypes between vaccine strains and actual rotavirus strains. For example, according to meta-analysis, strains with type G1P [ 8 ] represented more than 70% of rotavirus infections in North America, Europe, and Australia, but only about 30% of infections in South America and Asia, and 23% in Africa, between 1989 and 2004.…”

“…Recent developments in recombinant RVA vaccines include virus-like particle vaccines, recombinant subunit vaccines, and vaccines based on viral and live bacterial vectors [ 18 ]. There is a candidate vaccine based on the recombinant VP8 * protein fragment (65–223 amino acid residues) of the human isolate Wa with the G1P[8] genotype.…”

A Recombinant Rotavirus Antigen Based on the Coat Protein of Alternanthera Mosaic Virus

“…The currently existing vaccines against rotavirus infection are live attenuated vaccines for peroral administration. However, they have certain shortcomings, such as the risk of reversion to pathogenicity or the appearance of novel vaccine-associated reassortants of the virus, as well as the risk of intussusception (a serious complication caused by peroral vaccine administration) [3,4]. In this context, development of a recombinant vaccine against rotavirus A that could be administered perorally is a topical issue.…”

“…There exist different strategies for the development of recombinant vaccines. For anti-rotavirus vaccines, the major approaches are recombinant subunit vaccines containing individual rotavirus proteins, and vaccines based on virus-like particles (VLPs) composed of rotavirus proteins or proteins of other viruses [3]. In particular, it seems promising to obtain VLPs based on coat proteins of plant viruses, which are safe for humans, possess strong immunostimulating properties, and can be obtained cost-effectively [8].…”