CDC researchers have developed specific Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) immunogens for use in the development of RSV-directed vaccines and therapeutics. RSV is the most common cause of serious respiratory disease in infants and young children and an important cause of disease in the elderly. To date, efforts to make a mutually safe and effective vaccine have been largely unsuccessful. This invention addresses both problems.

CDC and collaborative researchers have demonstrated that a vaccine based on amino acid sequences corresponding to group-specific regions of the RSV G-protein can effectively induce antibodies, facilitate virus clearance, decrease the virus-induced inflammatory response to RSV challenge, and also decrease the enhanced disease following RSV challenge. This composition may be used alone as a vaccine to safely protect infants, children, and adults from RSV, as a booster with other RSV proteins or with inactivated virus as a vaccine to ensure that it can be given safely and effectively improve protection from RSV.