A menu of mutations was developed that is useful in fine-tuning the attenuation and growth characteristics of dengue virus vaccines.

Described herein are Zika virus vaccines and compositions and methods of producing and administering said vaccines to subjects in need thereof.

The present disclosure relates to sVERO 7C2, which is a Vero cell line derived from Vero cells (African Green Monkey Kidney Cell Line) distributed from the WHO and capable of suspension culture without serum components. Further, the present disclosure relates to a culture method for growing the Vero cells and a method for producing a vaccine virus using the Vero cells.

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

The present disclosure relates to methods for inactivating a Zika virus which can be used in vaccines and immunogenic compositions. The present disclosure also relates to a method for determining the completeness of inactivation of an arbovirus preparation.

Disclosed herein is provided a virus purification and formulation process for purifying a flavivirus represented by one of a Yellow Fever Virus, Japanese Encephalitis virus, Dengue virus, and West Nile virus. The highly purified flavivirus virus product is characterized as having a low level of sucrose without significant virus loss such as that which is typically encountered by prior art virus purification processes. The disclosed process captures and purifies the virus, separating it from the host cell proteins and DNA, and leaving the host cell proteins and DNA behind. The process also can be used to inactivate and/or concentrate the virus sufficiently for use in formulations.

The present invention relates to a method for removing host cell DNA from a sample comprising infectious viral particles and host cell DNA by anion exchange chromatography in the presence of at least one of a non-ionic surfactant, a sugar and a protein and to a method for purifying recombinant infectious viral particles from a host cell culture employing such an anion exchange chromatography step.

Novel attenuating deletions of Zika virus E2 polypeptides are provided as are attenuated viruses comprising the deletions. Also provided are immunogenic compositions that comprise the attenuated viruses and methods of producing such viruses in cells (such as insect cells). Viruses of the embodiments can be used for immunization of animals to provide protection from the pathogenic effects of Zika virus infection.

The present disclosure relates to compositions and methods for investigating Zika virus (ZIKV) biology and pathogenicity. The present disclosure provides genetically stable viral vectors to produce functional RNA transcripts of ZIKV cDNAs. In particular, the present disclosure provides full-length infectious cDNAs as bacterial artificial chromosomes for spatiotemporally distinct and genetically divergent ZIKVs. The present disclosure also provides methods of generating a genetically engineered attenuated ZIKV using the genetically stable viral vectors described herein.

The invention provides a recombinant polypeptide comprising the EDIII domain of each of Dengue virus serotype DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4 linked to the N-terminal of HBsAg.