Restoration of viral epithelial tropism improves immunogenicity in rabbits and rhesus macaques for a whole virion vaccine of human cytomegalovirus

► Early vaccines miss a pentameric gH complex important for viral epithelial entry. ► We restored expression of the complex in AD169 virus for evaluation in animals. ► Virus with restored complex can induce. ► 10-fold higher neutralizing antibodies. ► Peak titers post vaccination within 2-4-fold of those in HCMV positive subjects.