Sheep in wolves' clothing - Tackling mosquito-borne viral disease with a benign Australian virus - School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences

Mosquito-borne flaviviruses, such as dengue, Zika and Japanese encephalitis viruses, infect more than 400 million people a year. Vaccine and diagnostic technologies able to identify and respond to these existing and emerging threats are urgently needed.

Through examining thousands of mosquitoes collected Australia-wide, we have discovered a unique insect-specific virus that we have named Binjari virus. By engineering BinJV to mimic the appearance of pathogenic flaviviruses such as Japanese encephalitis, dengue or Zika viruses, we developed a new chimeric technology that accelerates scientific discovery and provides a platform to make the next generation of flavivirus diagnostics, therapies and vaccines.

While these BinJV-based chimeric mimics cannot infect humans and animals, they can be produced in cultured mosquito cells using industry-suitable protocols. The power of the technology has been realised through successful pre-clinical studies in mice showing that the BinJV chimeras as vaccines provide protection using a small single dose against dengue, Zika, West Nile and yellow fever viruses.

Sheep in wolves' clothing - Tackling mosquito-borne viral disease with a benign Australian virus

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