Background: The 2009 influenza pandemics underscored the need for effective vaccines to block the spread of influenza virus infection. Most live attenuated vaccines utilize cold-adapted, temperature-sensitive virus. An alternative to live attenuated virus is presented here, based on microRNA-induced gene silencing.
Methods: In this study, miR-let-7b target sequences were inserted into the H1N1 genome to engineer a recombinant virus - miRT-H1N1. Female BALB/c mice were vaccinated intranasally with the miRT-H1N1 and challenged with a lethal dose of homologous virus.
Results: This miRT-H1N1 virus was attenuated in mice, while it exhibited wild-type characteristics in chicken embryos. Mice vaccinated intranasally with the miRT-H1N1 responded with robust immunity that protected the vaccinated mice from a lethal challenge with the wild-type 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus.
Conclusions: These results indicate that the influenza virus containing microRNA response elements (MREs) is attenuated in vivo and can be used to design a live attenuated vaccine.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2015.07.002 | DOI Listing |
Sci Immunol
January 2025
Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Understanding the naïve B cell repertoire and its specificity for potential zoonotic threats, such as the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5Nx viruses, may allow prediction of infection- or vaccine-specific responses. However, this naïve repertoire and the possibility to respond to emerging, prepandemic viruses are largely undetermined. Here, we profiled naïve B cell reactivity against a prototypical HPAI H5 hemagglutinin (HA), the major target of antibody responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVaccines (Basel)
January 2025
Department of Comparative Pathobiology, Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, 625 Harrison St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
An effective universal influenza vaccine is urgently needed to overcome the limitations of current seasonal influenza vaccines, which are ineffective against mismatched strains and unable to protect against pandemic influenza. In this study, bovine and human adenoviral vector-based vaccine platforms were utilized to express various combinations of antigens. These included the H5N1 hemagglutinin (HA) stem region or HA2, the extracellular domain of matrix protein 2 of influenza A virus, HA signal peptide (SP), trimerization domain, excretory peptide, and the autophagy-inducing peptide C5 (AIP-C5).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVaccines (Basel)
January 2025
Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming 650118, China.
Background: The Influenza A virus (IAV), a pathogen affecting the respiratory system, represents a major risk to public health worldwide. Immunization remains the foremost strategy to control the transmission of IAV. The virus has two primary antigens: hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVaccines (Basel)
January 2025
NHC Key Laboratory of Biosafety, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, China.
Background: Polypeptide vaccines have the potential to improve immune responses by targeting conserved and weakly immunogenic regions in antigens. This study aimed to identify and evaluate the efficacy of a novel influenza universal vaccine candidate consisting of multiple polypeptides derived from highly conserved regions of influenza virus proteins hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), and matrix protein 2 (M2).
Methods: Immunoinformatics tools were used to screen conserved epitopes from different influenza virus subtypes (H1N1, H3N2, H5N1, H7N9, H9N2, and IBV).
Vaccines (Basel)
January 2025
Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, 2-1-6, Kamikitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-8506, Japan.
Background/objectives: In preparation for a potential pandemic caused by the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, pre-pandemic vaccines against several viral clades have been developed and stocked worldwide. Although these vaccines are well tolerated, their immunogenicity and cross-reactivity with viruses of different clades can be improved.
Methods: To address this aspect, we generated recombinant influenza vaccines against H5-subtype viruses using two different strains of highly attenuated vaccinia virus (VACV) vectors.
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