Management of Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) Zoonotic Transmission: Protection of Rabbits against HEV Challenge following Immunization with HEV 239 Vaccine

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) constitutes a significant health burden worldwide, with an estimated approximately 33% of the world's population exposed to the pathogen. The recent licensed HEV 239 vaccine in China showed excellent protective efficacy against HEV of genotypes 1 and 4 in the general population and pregnant women. Because hepatitis E is a zoonosis, it is also necessary to ascertain whether this vaccine can serve to manage animal sources of human HEV infection. To test the efficacy of the HEV 239 vaccine in protecting animal reservoirs of HEV against HEV infection, twelve specific-pathogen-free (SPF) rabbits were divided randomly into two groups of 6 animals and inoculated intramuscularly with HEV 239 and placebo (PBS). All animals were challenged intravenously with swine HEV of genotype 4 or rabbit HEV seven weeks after the initial immunization. The course of infection was monitored for 10 weeks by serum ALT levels, duration of viremia and fecal virus excretion and HEV antibody responses. All rabbits immunized with HEV 239 developed high titers of anti-HEV and no signs of HEV infection were observed throughout the experiment, while rabbits inoculated with PBS developed viral hepatitis following challenge, with liver enzyme elevations, viremia, and fecal virus shedding. Our data indicated that the HEV 239 vaccine is highly immunogenic for rabbits and that it can completely protect rabbits against homologous and heterologous HEV infections. These findings could facilitate the prevention of food-borne sporadic HEV infection in both developing and industrialized countries.