Researchers develop chikungunya fever vaccine from virus that does not affect people

A research team at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston recently developed the first vaccine for chikungunya fever, which was made in part from an insect-specific virus that does not have any effect on people.

The new vaccine quickly produces a strong immune defense and completely protects mice and nonhuman primates from infection when exposed to the virus. For the vaccine’s development, the researchers used the Eilat virus as a vaccine platform because it is structurally identical to the chikungunya virus and is known to only infect insects and not people.

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that causes symptoms ranging from fever, severe joint pain, headache, muscle pain, joint swelling and rash. While some people can recover quickly from infection, others can develop long-term joint pain that can last for years. While death from the virus is rare, it can happen in some cases.

“This vaccine offers efficient, safe and affordable protection against chikungunya and builds the foundation for using viruses that only infect insects to develop vaccines against other insect-borne diseases,” Scott Weaver, senior author of the study and UTMB professor, said.

After a single dose, the vaccine candidate induced neutralizing antibodies that lasted for more than 290 days. Those antibodies provided complete protection against chikungunya and elicited rapid and robust immunity, with no signs of the virus appearing in the blood or symptoms showing in the subjects.

UTMB published its findings in a recent issue of the medical journal Nature Medicine.