E protein-mutated west nile virus used as liveattenuated vaccine and oncolytic drug for cancer therapy

Abstract

The invention provides a recombinant West Nile virus, in which the amino acid sequence of envelope E protein is genetically modified to attenuation, and its RNA genome is inserted with a foreign gene fragment. The engineered E gene contains the mutation of five amino acids for reducing its neural virulence to the central nervous system; the integrated foreign gene between E and S1 gene makes a new chimerical virus. Thus, the present invention provides the application of this attenuated West Nile virus as a vaccine in preventive medicine and the application of the RNA-viral vector as a novel gene-drug in the pharmaceutical industry. The newly attenuated virus may fill the gap of no live-attenuated vaccine to the West Nile virus epidemic. The attenuated and recombinant virus can be used as an RNA oncolytic virus to target solid tumors, especially neural tumors, for cancer therapy with higher safety.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.