Vaccines to generate durable humoral immunity against antigenically evolving pathogens such as the influenza virus must elicit antibodies that recognize conserved epitopes. Analysis of single memory B cells from immunized human donors has led us to characterize a previously unrecognized epitope of influenza hemagglutinin (HA) that is immunogenic in humans and conserved among influenza subtypes. Structures show that an unrelated antibody from a participant in an experimental infection protocol recognized the epitope as well. IgGs specific for this antigenic determinant do not block viral infection in vitro, but passive administration to mice affords robust IgG subtype-dependent protection against influenza infection. The epitope, occluded in the pre-fusion form of HA, is at the contact surface between HA head domains; reversible molecular "breathing" of the HA trimer can expose the interface to antibody and B cells. Antigens that present this broadly immunogenic HA epitope may be good candidates for inclusion in "universal" flu vaccines.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.048 | DOI Listing |
Adv Sci (Weinh)
January 2025
National Key Laboratory of Veterinary Public Health and Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
To bolster the capacity for managing potential infectious diseases in the future, it is critical to develop specific antiviral drugs that can be rapidly designed and delivered precisely. Herein, a CRISPR/Cas13d system for broad-spectrum targeting of influenza A virus (IAV) from human, avian, and swine sources is designed, incorporating Cas13d mRNA and a tandem CRISPR RNA (crRNA) specific for the highly conserved regions of viral polymerase acidic (PA), nucleoprotein (NP), and matrix (M) gene segments, respectively. Given that the virus targets cells with specific receptors but is not limited to a single organ, a Susceptible Cell Selective Delivery (SCSD) system is developed by modifying a lipid nanoparticle with a peptide mimicking the function of the hemagglutinin of influenza virus to target sialic acid receptors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Influenza remains a persistent global health challenge, largely due to the virus' continuous antigenic drift and occasional shift, which impede the development of a universal vaccine. To address this, the identification of broadly neutralizing antibodies and their epitopes is crucial. Nanobodies, with their unique characteristics and binding capacity, offer a promising avenue to identify such epitopes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Immunol
January 2025
Department of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, McGill University Health Centre, McGill International TB Centre, Meakins Christie Laboratories, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Disease tolerance is an evolutionarily conserved host defense strategy that preserves tissue integrity and physiology without affecting pathogen load. Unlike host resistance, the mechanisms underlying disease tolerance remain poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated whether an adjuvant (β-glucan) can reprogram innate immunity to provide protection against influenza A virus (IAV) infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
The continuing emergence of immune evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants and the previous SARS-CoV-1 outbreak collectively underscore the need for broadly protective sarbecovirus vaccines. Targeting the conserved S2 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 is a particularly promising approach to elicit broad protection. Here, we describe a nanoparticle vaccine displaying multiple copies of the SARS-CoV-1 S2 subunit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLife Sci Alliance
March 2025
https://ror.org/0190ak572 Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Research Center, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
The discovery of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) has provided a new perspective on the centrality of RNA in gene regulation and genome organization. Here, we screened for lncRNAs with putative functions in the host response to single-stranded RNA respiratory viruses. We identify as a conserved cis-acting lncRNA up-regulated in three respiratory diseases to control the expression of its antisense gene , a key transcriptional regulator of the antiviral response.
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