Generating MVA-Vector Vaccine Candidates and Testing Them in Animal Models.

Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara (MVA) is a highly attenuated and replication-deficient vaccinia virus developed through serial passages in chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF). MVA is increasingly used in biomedicine for vaccine development in preclinical and clinical studies in humans. Major benefits of MVA include a well-established record in clinical safety, long-standing experience in genetic engineering of the virus, a large data set demonstrating efficacy in preclinical models with the capacity to induce both protective antigen-specific antibody and cellular immune responses, and the availability of virus production under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) suitable for industrial scale amplification. In this chapter, we describe established state-of-the-art protocols for generating, amplifying, and purifying recombinant MVA viruses, including possible vector viruses for further investigations as well as clinical evaluation.