Development of a new hydrogen peroxide-based vaccine platform

Safe and effective vaccines are crucial for maintaining public health and reducing the global burden of infectious disease. Here we introduce a new vaccine platform that uses hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to inactivate viruses for vaccine production. H2O2 rapidly inactivates both RNA and DNA viruses with minimal damage to antigenic structure or immunogenicity and is a highly effective method when compared with conventional vaccine inactivation approaches such as formaldehyde or beta-propiolactone. Mice immunized with H2O2-inactivated lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) generated cytolytic, multifunctional virus-specific CD8(+) T cells that conferred protection against chronic LCMV infection. Likewise, mice vaccinated with H2O2-inactivated vaccinia virus or H2O2-inactivated West Nile virus showed high virus-specific neutralizing antibody titers and were fully protected against lethal challenge. Together, these studies demonstrate that H2O2-based vaccines are highly immunogenic, provide protection against a range of viral pathogens in mice and represent a promising new approach to future vaccine development.