NOVEL PRRS VIRUS INDUCING TYPE I INTERFERON IN SUSCEPTIBLE CELLS

摘要

The present invention relates to the field of attenuated live viruses useful as vaccine or medicament for preventing or treating Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) in swine, and is based on the surprising finding of a PRRS virus which is able to induce the interferon type I response of a cell infected by said virus. In one embodiment, the PRRS virus according to the invention is a PRRS virus mutant comprising, in comparison with the genome of a wild type strain, a mutation in the gene encoding the non structural protein 1 (nsp1) of said virus.

主权项

1. A replication-competent Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) virus comprising a deletion of at least three consecutive nucleotide triplets in the gene sequence encoding the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the nsp1β subunit of the nsp1 protein of said virus, wherein the NTD starts with the N-terminal amino acid sequence SXXY (SEQ ID NO: 60) of nsp1β and ends with the serine (S) residue within the amino acid sequence SFP (SEQ ID NO: 62), wherein said deletion of at least three consecutive nucleotide triplets comprises a deletion of the nucleotide triplet encoding the first arginine residue (R) located at least 21 amino acid residues in the C-terminal direction from the N-terminal amino acid residue of nsp1β and a deletion of the two nucleotide triplets coding for the two amino acid residues flanking said R residue in the N-terminal direction, and wherein the modified PRRS virus induces production and secretion of interferon type I by a cell infected with said virus.