Modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) is a promising viral vector for vaccine development. MVA is well studied and has been widely used for vaccination against smallpox in Germany. This review describes the history of the origin of the virus and its properties as a vaccine, including a high safety profile. In recent years, MVA has found its place as a vector for the creation of vaccines against various diseases. To date, a large number of vaccine candidates based on the MVA vector have already been developed, many of which have been tested in preclinical and clinical studies. We discuss data on the immunogenicity and efficacy of some of these vaccines.

Vaccination is an effective and economically viable means of protection against the influenza virus, but due to rapid viral evolution, modern seasonal vaccines are not effective enough. Next-generation vaccines are designed to provide protection against a wide range of influenza virus strains, including pandemic variants. In our work, we made an epitope-based universal vaccine, rMVA-k1-k2, against the influenza virus based on the modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector and using our own algorithms to select epitopes from conserved fragments of the NP, M1 and HA proteins of influenza A and B. We show that double immunization protects mice with a 67% or greater efficiency against viral influenza pneumonia when infected with various strains of the H1N1, H2N2, H3N2 and H5N1 subtypes of influenza A. In animals, the level of protection provided by the rMVA-k1-k2 vaccine was comparable to that provided by the universal M001 and MVA-NP+M1 (Invictus) vaccines, which have shown success in clinical trials, against strains of the H1N1 and H3N2 subtypes.

Anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) offer a promising approach for the treatment of HIV-1. The current paradigm for antibody therapy involves passive antibody transfer, requiring regular delivery of bNAbs in treating chronic diseases such as HIV-1. An alternative strategy is to use AAV-mediated gene transfer to enable in vivo production of desirable anti-HIV-1 antibodies. In this study, we investigated two sets of triple combinations of AAV9-vectors encoding different bNAbs: N6, 10E8, 10-1074 (CombiMab1), and VRC07-523, PGDM1400, 10-1074 (CombiMab2). We used CBAxC57Bl and C57BL/6 mouse models to characterize rAAV-induced antibody expression and to evaluate the neutralization capacity of mouse sera against a global panel of HIV-1 viral strains. rAAV9-mediated IgG expression varied between bNAb clones and mouse strains, with C57BL/6 mice exhibiting higher bNAb titers following rAAV delivery. Although CombiMab2 treatment elicited a higher IgG titer than CombiMab1, both combinations resulted in neutralization of all the viral strains from the global HIV-1 panel. Our data highlight the potential of AAV vectors as a long-term option for HIV-1 therapy.

Modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is a promising vaccine vector due to its highly attenuated phenotype and good immunogenicity. However, obtaining a new recombinant MVA remains a tedious and laborious procedure involving many rounds of plaque purification. Recombinant MVA generation can be greatly improved and facilitated by different selection techniques. Here, we describe a comparison between techniques based on K1L, F13L and D4R genes.

The use of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) is a promising approach to HIV-1 treatment. In this work, we evaluate the neutralizing activity of the following HIV-1 bNAbs: VCR07-523, N6, PGDM1400, CAP256-VRC26.25, 10-1074, PGT128, 10E8, and DH511.11P, which are directed to different Env surface epitopes. We used the global panel of HIV-1 pseudoviruses to analyze the bNAbs’ potency and chose the most potent ones. To achieve maximum neutralization breadth and minimum IC₅₀ concentration, the most effective antibodies were tested in double and triple combinations. Among the doubles, the combinations of N6+PGDM1400 and N6+PGT128 with IC₅₀ ≤ 0.3 µg/mL proved to be the most effective. The most effective triple combination was N6+PGDM1400+PGT128. Our data demonstrate that this combination neutralizes pseudoviruses of the global HIV-1 panel with IC₅₀ ≤ 0.11 µg/mL and IC₈₀ ≤ 0.25 µg/mL.

Influenza virus is one of the most rapidly evolving human pathogens and causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. This feature enables the virus to avoid natural or vaccine-induced immunity. For this reason, there is an intensive search for new approaches to create a universal influenza vaccine. Here, we propose pipelines based on modern prediction algorithms that allowed us to select 10 B-cell epitopes, 10 CD8+ T-cell epitopes and 6 CD4+ T-cell epitopes from influenza viruses that were characterized by high conservation and antigenicity. These epitopes could be used to create universal vaccines against influenza viruses. In addition, the scripts used in these pipelines are universal and can be used to select epitopes from other pathogens.