Viruses are attenuated for vaccines through serial passage or chemical mutagenesis
Is it true that viruses are attenuated for vaccines through serial passage or chemical mutagenesis?
Yes. Multiple studies demonstrate that viral attenuation for live vaccines is commonly achieved through techniques such as serial passage in cell cultures or developing specific mutations.
Verdict: SUPPORTED · 5 sources for, 0 against · Last checked
The retrieved papers consistently support the claim that viruses are attenuated for vaccines through serial passage (e.g., in Japanese encephalitis, duck hepatitis A, African swine fever, Powassan virus, and yellow fever). Although chemical mutagenesis is not the primary focus of every paper, the extensive documentation of serial passage directly confirms the core mechanism stated in the claim without any refuting evidence.
Get citation
Yun, S., Song, B., Kim, J., Yun, G., Lee, E., Li, L., Kuhn, R., Rossmann, M., Morrey, J., & Lee, Y. (2014). A Molecularly Cloned, Live-Attenuated Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine SA14-14-2 Virus: A Conserved Single Amino Acid in the ij Hairpin of the Viral E Glycoprotein Determines Neurovirulence in Mice. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004290
See more details
Get citation
Xie, J., Wang, M., Cheng, A., Zhao, X., Liu, M., Zhu, D., Chen, S., Jia, R., Yang, Q., Wu, Y., Zhang, S., Liu, Y., Yu, Y., Zhang, L., & Chen, X. (2019). DHAV-1 Inhibits Type I Interferon Signaling to Assist Viral Adaption by Increasing the Expression of SOCS3. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00731
Get citation
Zhang, X., Wang, Z., Ge, S., Zuo, Y., Lu, H., Lv, Y., Han, N., Cai, Y., Wu, X., & Wang, Z. (2022). Attenuated African swine fever virus through serial passaging of viruses in cell culture: a brief review on the knowledge gathered during 60 years of research. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11262-022-01939-z
Get citation
Himmler, G. E., Mladinich, M. C., Conde, J. N., Gorbunova, E., Lindner, M., Kim, H. K., & Mackow, E. (2025). Passage-attenuated Powassan virus LI9P protects mice from lethal LI9 challenge and links envelope residue D308 to neurovirulence. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00065-25
Get citation
Qiu, X. & Bailey, A. L. (2025). Two mutations in NS2B are responsible for attenuation of the yellow fever virus (YFV) vaccine strain 17D. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1013373
What does the evidence say?
The retrieved papers consistently support the claim that viruses are attenuated for vaccines through serial passage (e.g., in Japanese encephalitis, duck hepatitis A, African swine fever, Powassan virus, and yellow fever). Although chemical mutagenesis is not the primary focus of every paper, the extensive documentation of serial passage directly confirms the core mechanism stated in the claim without any refuting evidence.
Receipt History
Challenge the receipt
Citation formatting by citeproc-js (Frank Bennett) and the Citation Style Language project. Source and licenses.
Terms · Privacy · How verdicts work