Grant: Project Grant

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly emerged pathogen that causes severe respiratory disease in humans. To date, more than a third (35%) of people infected do not survive. MERS-CoV is thought to be passed from dromedary camels to humans. Contact with dromedary camels is a frequent factor in initial human cases. These primary humans cases have subsequently caused large outbreaks of MERS-CoV, typically in hospitals. This has resulted in the temporary closure of healthcare facilities in order to control the spread of MERS-CoV. Here we propose to design a vaccine that stops transmission of MERS-CoV in camels, and as result transmission to humans as well. The vaccine we are designing is based on one that is already used in dromedary camels for the prevention of camelpox. This vaccine, called Ducapox, is a weakened version of the virus that causes camelpox in camels. We have introduced the gene that encodes the spike protein from MERS-CoV into this virus and propose to use this approach to demonstrate that this vaccine can prevent infection alpaca with MERS-CoV. Then, using assays that measure various components of the immune response to infection and vaccination we will determine what immune response results in protection from infection with MERS-CoV. From our previous work we know that alpacas are protected from re-infection and thus we can compare and contrast the immune response from experimental infection to the immune response to vaccination. Here we propose that an agricultural vaccine for camels can prevent infection and transmission of MERS-CoV in camels to halt MERS-CoV infections in humans.