Vaccination of human volunteers with monovalent and tetravalent live-attenuated dengue vaccine candidates.

Four serotypes of monovalent live attenuated dengue virus vaccine candidates were tested for reactogenicity and immunogenicity in 49 flavivirus non-immune adult human volunteers. The four monovalent candidates were then combined into a tetravalent formulation and given to another 10 volunteers. Neutralizing antibody seroconversion rates after a single-dose monovalent vaccination ranged from 53% to 100%. Solicited reactogenicity was scored by each volunteer. A composite index, the Reactogenicity Index, was derived by these self-reported scores. Reactogenicity differed among the four serotype candidates with serotype-1 associated with the most vaccine related side effects. A second dose of monovalent vaccines at either 30 days or 90 days was much less reactogenic but did not significantly increase seroconversion rates. Seroconversion rates in the 10 volunteers who received a single dose of tetravalent vaccine ranged from 30% to 70% among the four serotypes. Similar to the monovalent vaccines, a second dose of the tetravalent vaccine at one month was less reactogenic and did not increase seroconversion. A third dose of the tetravalent vaccine at four months resulted in three of four volunteers with trivalent or tetravalent high-titer neutralizing antibody responses.