Rotavirus is a major cause of severe diarrhea and dehydration in infants and young children. Vaccines that cover the most important rotavirus serotypes could help reduce serious illness worldwide.
Researchers at NIAID’s Laboratory of Infectious Diseases developed a multivalent human-bovine reassortant rotavirus vaccine using vaccine strains created by combining selected genes from human and bovine (cow) rotaviruses. This approach targets the most important rotavirus serotypes at once, including G1, G2, G3, and G4, with the potential to expand coverage to G5, G9, and G10.
These multivalent vaccine candidates trigger immune responses against multiple rotavirus serotypes in a single formulation at lower doses than earlier human-bovine vaccine approaches. The multivalent formulation does not cause the low-grade, short-lived fever seen with prior candidates.