Protection of mice against coxsackievirus B3 myocarditis by priming with polyvalent DNA-based vaccine followed by boosting with killed vaccine

Background: Coxsackieviral (CVB) myocarditis is an important cause of heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy. However, currently there is no effective prevention against viral infection. In this study, we studied the protective efficacy of polyvalent DNA-based vaccines (D), standard killed vaccines (K) and the combination of both. Methods: We cloned the VP1 fragment of CVB3-CG, CVB3-ST and CVB4 into a pCMV-driven vector system known for its...