Norovirus, a virus in the Calici family, is one of the main causes of viral gastroenteritis. There is currently not a vaccine available and there hasn't been any promising development of a vaccine. A major obstacle is the fact that Norovirus can't be cultured in cells (or at least no one has been able to accomplish this yet). The approach that the researchers at Ohio State University are taking is to use Virus-Like Particles as a vector for the vaccine. They used the primary nucleocapsid protein of Norovirus (labelled VP1) in a recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis virus to make Human Norovirus- Like particles (HuNoV) that are morphologically and antigenically similar normal HuNoV virions. They did this to try to trick the immune system into creating an immune response against the VLPs in hopes of creating successful immunity. The inoculated mice both through the intranasal and oral route and tested their levels of IgG to see if an immune response was triggered. They isolated blood samples from the mice and found that the recombinant VSV-VP1 stimulated a high IgG immune response and it was stronger than a previous VLP produced with baculovirus.
http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/85/6/2942
-Katie
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