Marylyn M. Addo: From Innovation to Impact: MVA Vaccines in Viral Disease Prevention and Therapy

From Innovation to Impact: MVA Vaccines in Viral Disease Prevention and Therapy

Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara (MVA) is a well-established and versatile viral vector platform used for both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine strategies. Originally attenuated through extensive serial passage in primary chicken embryo fibroblasts, MVA is replication-deficient in mammalian cells but retains the ability to enter cells and express viral genes, thereby inducing strong humoral and cellular immune responses. In addition to its licensed use as a smallpox and Mpox vaccine in its non-recombinant form, MVA has gained increasing importance as a platform technology for vaccines targeting emerging infectious diseases.

The German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) supports the development of an MVA-based platform for both preventive vaccines against emerging viruses and therapeutic approaches for chronic viral infections. Here, we report safety and immunogenicity data from early-phase clinical trials in humans investigating a prophylactic MVA-based vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), as well as an MVA-based vector expressing multiple Hepatitis B virus (HBV) antigens as part of a therapeutic vaccine strategy against chronic HBV infection with the ultimate aim of HBV cure. In addition, potent monoclonal antibodies were generated from individuals vaccinated with MVA-MERS, with broad neutralizing capacity against MERS-CoV isolates derived from different species including humans, camels and bats.