Special Issue "Vaccines and Therapeutics against Emerging Viruses"

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Lijun Rong
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Interests: mechanistic studies of viral entry and replication and antiviral drug development, particularly on small molecule drugs; mechanistic studies of emerging viruses such as infleunza virus, filoviruses, Henipah virus and SARS-CoV-2
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Christopher C. Broder
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Uniformed Services University, 4301 Jones Bridge Rd., Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
Interests: emerging viruses; virus–host cell interactions; enveloped virus entry, viral glycoprotein structure and function and virus receptors; viral vaccines and countermeasure development; paramyxoviruses; henipaviruses; Nipah and Hendra; filoviruses Ebola and Marburg; australian bat lyssavirus; animal models
Prof. Dr. Lu Lu
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Virology of Ministries of Health and Education, School of Basic Medical Sciences Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
Interests: antivirals; viral entry inhibitor; fusion inhibitor; antiviral vaccine
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging and re-emerging viruses are serious public concerns—especially at present, as we currently face one of the deadliest pandemics in human history: COVID-19, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2. This is a reminder that other emerging and re-emerging viruses, such as Ebola virus, Zika virus, Lassa fever virus, influenza A virus, Nipah virus, also have pandemic potential. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel vaccines and therapies since only limited options are available against these viruses. In particular, the broad-spectrum antivirals and vaccines against constantly mutating viruses are urgently needed. Driven by our understanding of the mechanisms of viral pathogenesis, novel techniques have been developed and used to engineer a new generation of vaccines and therapeutics against emerging viruses, including cell biology studies, live-cell imaging, structural biology, systems biology, etc.

In this Special Issue, we welcome submissions of research or review articles on recent advances in our understanding of vaccines and therapeutics against emerging viruses. Topics may include, but are not limited to, structural and functional study of vaccines, antigens, adjuvants, antibodies, peptides, small molecules, herbal ingredients, and any innovative therapeutic or preventive strategies against emerging viruses.

Prof. Dr. Lijun Rong
Prof. Dr. Christopher C. Broder
Prof. Dr. Lu Lu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Emerging viruses
  • Vaccines
  • Antivirals
  • Broad-spectrum
  • Viral inhibitor
  • Antibody
  • Small molecules
  • Peptides
  • Adjuvants

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Harnessing the Genetic Plasticity of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 to Target Suicidal Replication
Viruses 2021, 13(9), 1676; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13091676 - 24 Aug 2021
Viewed by 237
Abstract
Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), the causative agent of a wasting disease in weanling piglets, has periodically evolved into several new subtypes since its discovery, indicating that the efficacy of current vaccines can be improved. Although a DNA virus, the mutation rates of [...] Read more.
Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), the causative agent of a wasting disease in weanling piglets, has periodically evolved into several new subtypes since its discovery, indicating that the efficacy of current vaccines can be improved. Although a DNA virus, the mutation rates of PCV2 resemble RNA viruses. The hypothesis that recoding of selected serine and leucine codons in the PCV2b capsid gene could result in stop codons due to mutations occurring during viral replication and thus result in rapid attenuation was tested. Vaccination of weanling pigs with the suicidal vaccine constructs elicited strong virus-neutralizing antibody responses. Vaccination prevented lesions, body-weight loss, and viral replication on challenge with a heterologous PCV2d strain. The suicidal PCV2 vaccine construct was not detectable in the sera of vaccinated pigs at 14 days post-vaccination, indicating that the attenuated vaccine was very safe. Exposure of the modified virus to immune selection pressure with sub-neutralizing levels of antibodies resulted in 5 of the 22 target codons mutating to a stop signal. Thus, the described approach for the rapid attenuation of PCV2 was both effective and safe. It can be readily adapted to newly emerging viruses with high mutation rates to meet the current need for improved platforms for rapid-response vaccines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vaccines and Therapeutics against Emerging Viruses)
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Article
Fludarabine Inhibits Infection of Zika Virus, SFTS Phlebovirus, and Enterovirus A71
Viruses 2021, 13(5), 774; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13050774 - 27 Apr 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 552
Abstract
Viral infections are one of the leading causes in human mortality and disease. Broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are a powerful weapon against new and re-emerging viruses. However, viral resistance to existing broad-spectrum antivirals remains a challenge, which demands development of new broad-spectrum therapeutics. In [...] Read more.
Viral infections are one of the leading causes in human mortality and disease. Broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are a powerful weapon against new and re-emerging viruses. However, viral resistance to existing broad-spectrum antivirals remains a challenge, which demands development of new broad-spectrum therapeutics. In this report, we showed that fludarabine, a fluorinated purine analogue, effectively inhibited infection of RNA viruses, including Zika virus, Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus, and Enterovirus A71, with all IC50 values below 1 μM in Vero, BHK21, U251 MG, and HMC3 cells. We observed that fludarabine has shown cytotoxicity to these cells only at high doses indicating it could be safe for future clinical use if approved. In conclusion, this study suggests that fludarabine could be developed as a potential broad-spectrum anti-RNA virus therapeutic agent. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Vaccines and Therapeutics against Emerging Viruses)
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