Immunogenic compositions for use in and methods for protecting against Herpes Zoster (shingles).

An antigen variant and a use thereof are disclosed. The antigen variant is a protein, among surface proteins (gE) of the varicella zoster virus, exhibits a high expression level and high immunogenicity, and thus, when the antigen variant is used as a vaccine composition, the vaccine composition has more excellent safety compared to a live virus vaccine, and the antigen variant exhibits a higher expression level in a host cell compared to other antigens. The antigen variant is useful as a vaccine for preventing or treating chicken pox or herpes zoster caused by the varicella zoster virus.

Provided are antigenic compositions and uses thereof that include at least two human herpesvirus (HHV) polypeptides involved in mediating HHV binding, fusion, and entry into host cells, such as gp350, gH, gL, and gB, or nucleic acids encoding the polypeptides. The two HHV polypeptides comprise any combination of: a gB polypeptide; a gp350 polypeptide; a gL polypeptide; and a gH polypeptide, and optionally any one or more of the following polypeptides: gp42, gM, gN, gl, gC, gE, gD, ORF68, BMRF-2, BDLF2, UL128, UL130, UL131A, and gpK8.1. Also disclosed are methods of inducing an immune response or treating or preventing an HHV infection in a subject by administering to the subject at least two of the HHV polypeptides or nucleic acid(s) encoding the same. Methods of passively transferring immunity using high-titer anti-HHV antibodies or immune cells are also disclosed.

The present invention relates to the field of (vector) vaccines, and especially to the novel EHV insertion site UL43. The present invention further concerns related expression cassettes and vectors, which are suitable to express genes of interest, especially antigen encoding sequences. The viral vectors of the present invention are useful for producing an immunogenic composition or vaccine.

The present invention relates to a vaccine composition for prevention or treatment of chicken pox or herpes zoster, the vaccine composition comprising a surface protein (gE) of Varicella Zoster Virus and especially an aluminum salt as an adjuvant. The vaccine composition according to the present invention employs a protein antigen, thus showing greater outstanding stability than a live vaccine and has an optimized mixture ratio of adjuvants to elicit effective antibody induction, thereby being useful as a vaccine for preventing or treating Varicella Zoster Virus-caused chicken pox or herpes zoster.

The present invention relates to a herpes zoster vaccine composition, which comprises glycoprotein E of Varicella zoster virus, a glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant, and a metabolic oil, and selectively increases a cell-mediated immune reaction without having disadvantages of attenuated live vaccines, thereby exhibit high safety and a high preventive effect against herpes zoster.

A vaccine delivery method is presented that includes a composition including as one component a slurry matrix that is a liquid at room temperature and a gel at physiological pH, physiological salt concentrations and/or physiological temperatures and as a second component one or more antigens. Also included are methods of inducing an immune response in a subject and vaccinating a subject by administering such compositions.

The present disclosure is directed to novel biomarkers useful for staging EHV-1 infections and immunity status of horses. This disclosure is further directed to methods of determining EHV-1 infection stage and immunity status of horses using the novel biomarkers.

The present invention relates to a vaccine composition for prevention or treatment of chicken pox or herpes zoster, the vaccine composition comprising a surface protein (gE) of Varicella Zoster Virus and especially an aluminum salt as an adjuvant. The vaccine composition according to the present invention employs a protein antigen, thus showing greater outstanding stability than a live vaccine and has an optimized mixture ratio of adjuvants to elicit effective antibody induction, thereby being useful as a vaccine for preventing or treating Varicella Zoster Virus-caused chicken pox or herpes zoster.

Described herein is the formulation of immunogenic or vaccine compositions comprising neutral lipid liposome based adjuvants, where the composition is suitable for lyophilisation. In particular, the invention relates to lyophilised forms of such immunogenic or vaccine compositions wherein both the immunogen or vaccine antigen and the adjuvant are present in one and the same vial, as well as to the formulation and manufacture of lyophilised forms of such immunogenic or vaccine composition.