Blanco, Jorge C GPletneva, Lioubov M.Cullen, Lori McGinnesOtoa, Raymonde O.Patel, Mira C.Fernando, Lurds R.Boukhvalova, Marina S.Morrison, Trudy G.2022-08-232022-08-232018-05-152018-07-06<p>Nat Commun. 2018 May 15;9(1):1904. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04216-6. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04216-6">Link to article on publisher's site</a></p>2041-1723 (Linking)10.1038/s41467-018-04216-629765035https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/40667Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common cause of bronchiolitis in infants. Maternal immunization is an option to increase maternal antibody levels and protect infants from infection. Here we assess the efficacy of virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidates containing stabilized pre-fusion (pre-F) or post-fusion (post-F) conformations of the RSV F protein and the attachment RSV G protein in a maternal immunization model using cotton rats. VLP vaccines containing RSV F and G proteins strongly boost pre-existing RSV immunity in dams preventing their perinatal drop in immunity. Boosting is stronger for the pre-F VLP than for the post-F VLP or purified subunit F protein vaccines, giving an advantage on mothers' protection. VLP immunization of dams provides significant protection to pups from RSV challenge and reduced pulmonary inflammation. Collectively, our results show that a VLP vaccine with RSV F and G proteins is safe and effective for maternal and adult vaccination.en-US© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Hemic and Immune SystemsImmunoprophylaxis and TherapyMaternal and Child HealthRespiratory Tract DiseasesVirusesJournal Articlehttps://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4480&amp;context=oapubs&amp;unstamped=1https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/346912450241oapubs/3469