Structural studies promote vaccine development: lessons from African swine fever virus

Protein & Cell, 27 June, 2025, DOI：https://doi.org/10.1093/procel/pwaf055

Structural studies promote vaccine development: lessons from African swine fever virus

Yuxia Zhang, Ling Zhu

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a large, double-stranded DNA virus classified within the family Asfarviridae, a clinically notable outlier in Baltimore Group I. The virus harbors a linear double-stranded DNA genome of 170–194 kb, encoding over 150 open reading frames (ORFs), and features a highly complex multi-layered architecture, wreaking havoc on global swine populations and having caused massive culling and economic losses across Asia, Europe, and Africa (Costard et al., 2009; Penrith et al., 2013). The ability of ASFV to evade host immunity, persist in multiple wild Suidae reservoirs, including wild boars (Sus scrofa), warthogs (Phacochoerus spp.), and bush pigs (Potamochoerus spp.). Moreover, its resistance to inactivation in contaminated meat products further facilitates long-distance transmission and contributes to the virus’s geographic expansion across both endemic and non-endemic regions (Costard et al., 2009). Unlike other veterinary viral diseases, ASFV remains largely intractable—there is no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment available to date (Urbano and Ferreira, 2022; Zhang et al., 2024). Numbers of vaccine approaches, including using vaccines with naturally or experimentally deleted genes, subunit vaccines based on recombinant proteins, and DNA vaccines (Arias et al., 2017; Gaudreault and Richt, 2019) (Fig. 1A and 1B), have been explored with varying success, often limited by safety concerns or inadequate protection (Bosch-Camós et al., 2020).

文章链接：https://academic.oup.com/proteincell/advance-article/doi/10.1093/procel/pwaf055/8176797