Immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the current inactivated Japanese encephalitis vaccine against different Japanese encephalitis virus strains.

Mouse brain-derived, inactivated Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine has been internationally used for many years. It is believed that this vaccine made a great contribution to the reduction of JE patients in several countries. Mouse brain-derived, Beijing-1 and Nakayama JE vaccines induce high levels of neutralizing antibodies. High levels of induced antibodies are maintained at least for 3-4 yr. The induced antibodies are cross-reactive to heterologous strains; however, the neutralizing antibody titers against heterologous strains are usually lower than those against homologous strains. Considering that both Nakayama and Beijing-1 JE vaccines showed high levels of protective efficacy in Taiwan and Thailand where strains other than Nakayama and Beijing-1 were circulating, we conclude that the current inactivated JE vaccine can induce high levels of protective immunity against heterologous JE virus strains.