A live attenuated vaccine against coronaviruses

This application builds on the previously granted TKI LSH project entitled “Construction of a toolbox of enabling technology for coronavirus vaccine strategies”. It involved the construction and testing of a novel type of live attenuated vaccine against coronaviruses.

Coronaviruses are well-known for their zoonotic potential and for their ability to cause deadly infections in humans (SARS-coronavirus, MERS-coronavirus etc.) as well as in animals, and for which no vaccines are yet available. Because testing of vaccine efficacy against such lethal viruses in humans is ethically not feasible, the approach was to develop a prototype vaccine against a lethal animal coronavirus, feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV).

Infections by FIPV result in severe systemic disease that is almost invariably fatal. It is the most dreaded infection among cat owners as there are no preventive or therapeutic measures. It is the aim to develop a vaccine against FIPV.

In this project, a FIPV challenge virus will be tested and characterised that will be used in future vaccination-challenge experiments.