Vaxvec: The first web-based recombinant vaccine vector database and its data analysis

Abstract

A recombinant vector vaccine uses an attenuated virus, bacterium, or parasite as the carrier to express a heterologous antigen(s). Many recombinant vaccine vectors and related vaccines have been developed and extensively investigated. To compare and better understand recombinant vectors and vaccines, we have generated Vaxvec (http://www.violinet.org/vaxvec), the first web-based database that stores various recombinant vaccine vectors and those experimentally verified vaccines that use these vectors. Vaxvec has now included 59 vaccine vectors that have been used in 196 recombinant vector vaccines against 66 pathogens and cancers. These vectors are classified to 41 viral vectors, 15 bacterial vectors, 1 parasitic vector, and 1 fungal vector. The most commonly used viral vaccine vectors are double-stranded DNA viruses, including herpesviruses, adenoviruses, and poxviruses. For example, Vaxvec includes 63 poxvirus-based recombinant vaccines for over 20 pathogens and cancers. Vaxvec collects 30 recombinant vector influenza vaccines that use 17 recombinant vectors and were experimentally tested in 7 animal models. In addition, over 60 protective antigens used in recombinant vector vaccines are annotated and analyzed. User-friendly web-interfaces are available for querying various data in Vaxvec. To support data exchange, the information of vaccine vectors, vaccines, and related information is stored in the Vaccine Ontology (VO). Vaxvec is a timely and vital source of vaccine vector database and facilitates efficient vaccine vector research and development.

Rendezvous with Vaccinia Virus in the Post-smallpox Era: R&D Advances

“…A user-friendly database that can be conveniently updated should unquestionably receive more attention. An example of a web-based database, named Vaxvec, for recombinant vaccine vectors was reported by Deng and co-workers [ 126 ]. It falls under the umbrella of VIOLIN (Vaccine Investigation and Online Information Network), the first platform that includes thousands of vaccines and hundreds of diseases [ 127 , 128 ] but provides additional information specifically for vaccine vectors and antigens of interest in these recombinant vectors.…”

Integrative representations and analyses of vaccine-induced intended protective immunity and unintended adverse events using ontology-based and theory-guided approaches

“…The hierarchies and logical relations of thousands of terms in VO support computer-assisted automated inferencing. VO has been applied to support various vaccine data integration [7-11] and literature mining [4,12,13] .…”