Location: Foreign Arthropod Borne Animal Disease Research
Project Number: 3022-32000-025-039-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Aug 31, 2029
Objective:
The objective of this agreement is to evaluate host immune responses to novel Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) vaccinations in order to better understand correlates of protection from JEV in United States (U.S.) livestock, with the aim of developing new countermeasures. Specific objectives include: 1) evaluate the role of B-cell responses in host protection against JEV infections, and 2) use this information to develop new vaccine strategies. These efforts will provide new knowledge regarding host immune response and identify the key viral proteins needed for high protective efficacy.
Approach:
Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) is divided into five distinct genotypes (I-V) with minimal cross-protection conferred between individual genotypes, making effective vaccine production difficult. Current human vaccination strategies rely on a live attenuated or inactivated virus. These vaccines are based off of a Genotype III. Although most JEV cases either belong to Genotype I or III, newly (re)emerging variants of Genotype IV and V emphasize the need for cross-protective vaccines. Further, there are currently no approved vaccines against JEV in swine in the United States. This agreement combines expertise in JEV and vaccine development to advance the goal of understanding the host adaptive immune responses to JEV infections and development of new countermeasures to prevent and control disease. First, mouse and swine B-cell response will be studied to determine immune correlates of protection against JEV infection through assessing efficacy of novel JEV vaccines. Additionally, whole viral antigens and peptide epitopes associated with protective responses will be identified and characterized. Our studies seek to test various novel vaccines intended for later use in swine, including but not limited to virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine and nucleotide vaccine candidates, against JEV.