Development of a vaccine against cytomegalovirus infection and disease

Human cytomegalovirus causes disabling congenital disease in neonates and severe complications in immunocompromised individuals, making it a high priority for vaccine development. A prophylactic vaccine needs to outperform natural immunity and a therapeutic vaccine needs to elicit rapid protective antiviral responses. This review highlights the three major approaches undertaken by vaccine developers-virus-derived, protein subunit, and gene-based approaches. Each approach offers a unique promise for a successful vaccine by eliciting either a broad immune response or inducing neutralizing antibody responses order(s) of magnitudes greater than natural immunity. A vaccine-elicited immunity is anticipated to have the robustness and duration sufficient to overcome cytomegalovirus infection.