Disclosed herein are recombinant baculoviruses suitable for detecting the presence of arthropod-borne viruses in a biological sample of a test subject. The information derived from the detection may also be used to render a diagnosis on whether the test subject is infected with the arthropod-borne viruses or not, so that proper course of treatment may be assigned to the subject.

The present invention provides modified alphaviruses and compositions, methods, and kits for preparing and using them to elicit an immune response to an alphavirus in a subject.

Disclosed herein is a composition comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a Mayaro Virus antigen that elicits an immune response in a mammal. Also disclosed herein is a nucleic acid sequence encoding an anti-Mayaro Virus antibody, a fragment thereof, a variant thereof. Also disclosed herein is a method of generating a synthetic antibody in a subject by administering the composition to the subject. The disclosure also provides a method of preventing and/or treating a Mayaro virus infection in a subject using said composition and method of generation.

Disclosed herein are recombinant baculoviruses suitable for detecting the presence of arthropod-borne viruses in a biological sample of a test subject. The information derived from the detection may also be used to render a diagnosis on whether the test subject is infected with the arthropod-borne viruses or not, so that proper course of treatment may be assigned to the subject.

The disclosure provides methods for an in vitro evolution technique to identify and characterize mutations in the non-structural genes of an alphavirus replicon that increase the strength and persistence of expression of the replicon genome. Also provided herein are in vivo methods for administering to an animal model a mutated alphavirus replicon that codes for a gene of experimental or therapeutic interest in the subgenome of the alphavirus replicon. The mutations identified herein improve the therapeutic potential of self-replicating RNA, which may have implications for cancer immunotherapy and beyond, e.g., for vaccination or gene therapy.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to nucleic acid vaccines. The vaccines include one or more RNA polynucleotides having an open reading frame encoding one or more Chikungunya antigen(s), one or more Zika virus antigens, and one or more Dengue antigens. Methods for preparing and using such vaccines are also described.

Methods and compositions are provided for delivery of a polynucleotide encoding a gene of interest, typically an antigen, to a dendritic cell (DC). The virus envelope comprises a DC-SIGN specific targeting molecule. The methods and related compositions can be used to treat patients suffering from a wide range of conditions, including infection, such as HIV/AIDS, and various types of cancers.

Compositions of a recombinant adenovirus based vector vaccine containing one or more alphavirus antigen genes are disclosed herein. Methods for constructing and producing such vaccines and methods of using these vaccines to generate broad based immune responses against alphaviruses are also described. Compositions described herein allow for vaccinations in individuals with preexisting immunity to adenovirus.

The invention provides RNA replicons useful for administering a heterologous protein or peptide into a mammal and eliciting a reduced immune response or no immune response from the mammal. The RNA replicons have RNA sequences encoding for a heterologous protein or peptide, New World alphavirus nonstructural proteins nsP1, nsP2, and nsP4; and an alphavirus nsP3 protein macro domain, central domain, and hypervariable domain. The encoded hypervariable domain can have an amino acid sequence derived from an Old World alphavirus nsP3 hypervariable domain; or can have an amino acid sequence derived from a portion of a New World alphavirus nsP3 hypervariable domain, and another portion derived from an Old World alphavirus nsP3 hypervariable domain.

The present invention provides novel multigenome retroviral vectors, methods and packaging systems for making such retroviral vectors and methods of use.