Immunogenic compositions comprising cold-adapted attenuated respiratory syncytial virus mutants

Abstract

The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of lower respiratory tract disease in infants and children throughout the world. RSV is a major cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants under one year of age, and is a major cause of fatal respiratory tract disease in these infants. The treatment and prevention of RSV infection has been problematic. However, the present invention addresses some of these concerns by providing attenuated RSV strains that are suitable for inclusion in immunizing compositions. Specifically, the present invention is directed toward the introduction of growth restriction mutations into incompletely attenuated host range-restricted cold-passaged respiratory syncytial virus (cpRSV) strains by further passage of the strains at increasingly reduced temperatures to produce derivative strains which are more satisfactorily attenuated. These cold-adaptation (ca) approaches were used to introduce further attenuation in the parental RSV virus cpRSV-3131, which is incompletely attenuated in seronegative children. Mutants of the parental strain were obtained by selecting for large plaque production at reduced temperatures. An RSV cp-3131 derivative, designated D,, was isolated that produces large plaques at 25° C. Biologically cloned virus D1 produces distinctly and uniformly larger plaques at 25° C. as compared to the parental attenuated strain cpRSV-3131 or wild-type strain A2. Thus, D1 is an attenuated cold-adapted, but not temperature-sensitive, RSV mutant. The invention also provides methods for stimulating RSV-specific immune responses in an individual through the administration of said mutants.