A Novel Vaccine Strategy for Dengue Prevention

Dengue virus (DENV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, is currently the most significant arbovirus afflicting tropical and sub-tropical countries worldwide. No vaccine or therapeutics are available, and dengue has rapidly spread over the last decade. Therefore, additional strategies to combat dengue are urgently needed.

Dr. Gong Cheng, a Principal Investigator from Tsinghua School of Medicine, China, and his colleagues developed a vector-based vaccination strategy against dengue dissemination. In this study, Cheng’s group identified multiple C-type lectins (mosGCTL) as necessary susceptibility factors to facilitate dengue virus infection in mosquito Aedes aegypti. These mosGCTLs directly interacted with dengue virus. For arthropod-borne microbes, vector ligands that interact with pathogens are potential targets for interfering with the successful acquisition of the microbe from the vertebrate host. The combination of antisera against multiple mosGCTLs efficiently reduced DENV-2 infection after a blood meal, suggesting that it is feasible to develop a mosGCTL-based transmission-blocking vaccine to interrupt the life cycle of dengue virus and control disease burden in nature (See the picture).

Dr. Gong Cheng leads a lab at Tsinghua School of Medicine studying the immuno-pathogenesis of flaviviral diseases. Dengue, Japanese encephalitis and human Hepatitis C are areas of particular interest. Studies are directed at understanding the interactions between pathogen, host, and vector that result in virulence and transmission, and the molecular basis of disease in animal models and patient populations.

This research was supported by Grant for Grand Challenges Explorations of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1021992), National Key Basic Research Program of MOST (2013CB911500), National Science and Technology Mega Project for Infectious Diseases (2013ZX1004-610) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (81301412).

Journal reference: Liu Y, Zhang F, Liu J, Xiao X, Zhang S, Qin CF, Xiang Y, Wang P and Cheng G. (2014) Transmission-Blocking Antibodies against Mosquito C-Type Lectins for Dengue Prevention. PLoS Pathog 10(2): e1003931. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1003931

The Paper link: http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003931.