The present disclosure provides vaccine compositions for prophylaxis and treatment of Zika virus infections comprising Zika virus antigens in immunogenic compositions, and in combination of Zika antigens with one or more arbovirus antigens such as Chikungunya virus and Japanese encephalitis virus antigens, methods of preparation and production of such compositions for use as vaccines for eliciting immune response in mammals against the above mentioned pathogens.

Described herein are processes for purifying infectious virus particles and uses of protamine in such processes.

A concentration membrane for use in concentrating biological particles, including: a hydrophilic composite porous membrane including: a porous substrate; and a hydrophilic resin with which at least one main surface and inner surfaces of pores of the porous substrate are coated, the hydrophilic composite porous membrane having a ratio t/x of a membrane thickness t (m) to an average pore diameter x (m), as measured with a perm porometer, of from 50 to 630. A concentration device 10 for biological particles 50 including: a housing 20 having an inlet 21 and an outlet 22, in which, due to a differential pressure between the inlet 21 and the outlet 22, a liquid to be treated 40 containing biological particles 50 and water is injected from the inlet 21 and discharged from the outlet 22; a concentration membrane 30 provided to separate the inlet 21 and the outlet 22 from each other in the housing 20, the concentration membrane 30 being a hydrophilic porous membrane onto which the biological particles 50 are not adsorbed, the concentration membrane 30 allowing an effluent 42, which is a liquid having a concentration that is a concentration of the biological particles 50 subtracted from a concentration of the liquid to be treated 40, to permeate from a surface on a side of the inlet 21 to a surface on a side of the outlet 22; and a concentration space portion 24 which is a space on an upstream side of the concentration membrane 30 in the housing 20 and stores a concentrated liquid 41 which is a liquid having a concentration that is a concentration of the biological particles 50 added to a concentration of the liquid to be treated 40 by the concentration membrane 30.

The disclosure relates to a polypeptide suitable for detecting antibodies against a flavivirus in an isolated biological sample having a flavivirus NS1 wing domain specific amino acid sequence, wherein no amino acid sequences from the NS1 ß-ladder domain of said flavivirus are present in the polypeptide. In an embodiment, the flavivirus is selected from Zika virus (ZIKV), West-Nile virus (WNV), Dengue virus types 1-4 (DENV1-4), tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), yellow fever virus (YFV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). Also disclosed is a method for producing said flaviviral NS1 wing domain specific polypeptides, a method for detecting antibodies specific for a first flavivirus species, the use of said flaviviral NS1 wing domain specific polypeptides for detecting antibodies as well as a reagent kit for detecting said flavivirus antibodies that has a flavivirus NS1 wing domain polypeptide.

This invention relates to a vaccine comprising live attenuated Zika virus comprising a partly codon deoptimized viral genome, a Zika virus comprising a partly codon deoptimized viral genome, as well as their use in methods of treatment and prevention of viral infection. is deoptimized along the nonstructural ZIKV coding region. In some embodiments, the non-structural region of the viral genome is codon deoptimized, and preferably one or more of the genes NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B and NS5 are codon deoptimized.

The present invention provides an efficient process for culturing viruses in the presence of an endonuclease and for producing vaccines, typically from live attenuated viruses, under conditions to reduce the presence of host cell DNA and eliminate the need for a post-harvest DNA digestion step.

Described herein are dengue virus E-glycoprotein polypeptides containing mutations that eliminate immunodominant cross-reactive epitopes associated with immune enhancement. The disclosed dengue virus E-glycoproteins optionally further include mutations that introduce a strong CD4 T cell epitope. The disclosed E-glycoprotein polypeptides, or nucleic acid molecules encoding the polypeptides, can be used, for example, in monovalent or tetravalent vaccines against dengue virus.

Compositions for protecting subjects from diseases caused by (+) SS RNA virus are described herein. The compositions include (i) a vector containing a DNA encoding a RNA molecule of an infectious (+) SS RNA virus operably linked to a eukaryotic RNA polymerase promoter and a carrier; or (ii) (+) SS RNA viruses obtained from eukaryotic cells transfected with the vector of (i) and a carrier.

The present invention relates to the provision of immunogenic or vaccine compositions comprising at least one recombinant Zika virus antigen, wherein the at least one recombinant Zika virus antigen is encoded by at least one nucleic acid sequence encoding at least one E-protein of a Zika virus or a functional fragment thereof. Further provided are nucleic acid molecules and a recombinant chimeric virus encoding and/or comprising selected antigens from a Zika virus, which are suitable as vaccine compositions. Preferably, the sequences encoding at least one Zika virus antigens suitable for eliciting an immune response are operably linked to a non-flavivirus derived vector backbone. Further provided are methods for purifying the recombinant chimeric virus particles or the immunogenic composition. Finally, there is provided an immunogenic/vaccine composition for use in a method of preventing or treating a Zika virus disease.

Isolated mutant dengue virus E protein variants are disclosed. The variant comprises an amino acid sequence that is at least 80% identical to SEQ ID NO: 1 and has one or more amino acid residue substitutions at position corresponding to Asn8 (N8), Arg9 (R9), Val12 (V 12) and/or Glu13 (E13). The variant may comprise an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to the SEQ ID NO: 1 and lack an infection-enhancing antibody-binding motif comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 28 at domain I. An isolated nucleic acid sequence encoding the variant, a plasmid expressing the variant, a plasmid expressing a virus-like particle comprising the variant, a DNA vaccine, and a method of detecting the presence of a dengue virus in a biological sample are also disclosed.