Development of a new hydrogen peroxide-based vaccine platform

Abstract

Safe and effective vaccines are crucial for maintaining public health and reducing the global burden of infectious disease. Here we introduce a new vaccine platform that uses hydrogen peroxide (H 2O 2) to inactivate viruses for vaccine production. H 2O 2 rapidly inactivates both RNA and DNA viruses with minimal damage to antigenic structure or immunogenicity and is a highly effective method when compared with conventional vaccine inactivation approaches such as formaldehyde or β-propiolactone. Mice immunized with H 2O 2-inactivated lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) generated cytolytic, multifunctional virus-specific CD8 + T cells that conferred protection against chronic LCMV infection. Likewise, mice vaccinated with H 2O 2-inactivated vaccinia virus or H 2O 2-inactivated West Nile virus showed high virus-specific neutralizing antibody titers and were fully protected against lethal challenge. Together, these studies demonstrate that H 2O 2-based vaccines are highly immunogenic, provide protection against a range of viral pathogens in mice and represent a promising new approach to future vaccine development. © 2012 Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.