{"doi":"10.1101/2023.03.01.530296","title":"Humoral and T-cell-mediated responses to a pre-clinical Zika vaccine candidate that utilizes a unique insect-specific flavivirus platform","abstract":"ABSTRACT Vaccination is critical for the control and prevention of viral outbreaks, yet conventional vaccine platforms may involve trade-offs between immunogenicity and safety. Insect-specific viruses have emerged as a novel vaccine platform to overcome this challenge. Detailed studies of humoral and T-cell responses induced by new insect-specific flavivirus (ISFV)-based vaccine platforms are needed to better understand correlates of protection and improve vaccine efficacy. Previously, we used a novel ISFV called Aripo virus (ARPV) to create a Zika virus (ZIKV) vaccine candidate (designated ARPV/ZIKV). ARPV/ZIKV demonstrated exceptional safety and single-dose efficacy, completely protecting mice from a lethal ZIKV challenge. Here, we explore the development of immune responses induced by ARPV/ZIKV immunization and evaluate its correlates of protection. Passive transfer of ARPV/ZIKV-induced immune sera to naïve mice prior to challenge emphasized the importance of neutralizing antibodies as a correlate of protection. Depletion of T-cells in vaccinated mice and adoptive transfer of ARPV/ZIKV-primed T-cells to naïve mice prior to challenge indicated that ARPV/ZIKV-induced CD4 + and CD8 + T-cell responses contribute to the observed protection but may not be essential for protection during ZIKV challenge. However, vaccination of Rag1 KO, Tcra KO, and muMt − mice demonstrated the critical role for ARPV/ZIKV-induced T-cells in developing protective immune responses following vaccination. Overall, both humoral and T-cell-mediated responses induced by ISFV-based vaccines are important for comprehensive immunity, and ISFV platforms continue to be a promising method for future vaccine development.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2023,"id":395913,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.953,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":398464,"name":"Awadalkareem Adam","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":245584,"name":"Lin Kang","orcid":"0000-0002-9186-9574","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":245585,"name":"Pawel Michalak","orcid":"0000-0003-4890-8985","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":951182,"name":"Juselyn D. Tupik","orcid":"0000-0003-4350-1553","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1171664,"name":"Matthew A. Santos","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1145318,"name":"Christy Lee","orcid":"0000-0002-0709-5001","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":297448,"name":"Irving C. Allen","orcid":"0000-0001-9573-5250","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":396912,"name":"Tian Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-1511-0793","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":440343,"name":"Albert J. Auguste","orcid":"0000-0001-9048-0041","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":704689,"name":"Danielle L. Porier","orcid":"0000-0001-8837-9673","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":31,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:19:27.044553Z","pmid":"36909623","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}