Zika virus envelope protein looks even less immunogenic (scoring -20) than H7N9 HA (scoring – 8), which (without adjuvant) was 10 fold less immunogenic than H1N1, which scored higher than 20 on our immunogenicity scale.
The fact that we (EpiVax folk) haven’t said much about Zika probably has people scratching their heads.
Well … here you have it We say: proceed with caution. Why? Zika is a Flavivirus, and that means it’s an RNA virus. That means lots of rapid evolution (the virus changes rapidly over time) and that has proven to be true. And now this: the Zika Envelope protein has an immunogenicity score lower than H7N9 HA – which turned out to be extremely poorly immunogenic.
We are raising the red flag of caution, because we don’t think that simply cramming the envelope protein into your standard vector will work. Not unless your real objective is to get a government contract, and making a vaccine that actually works is not your true objective. If making a vaccine that works is your true objective, then read more about that here.