Neutralizing epitopes of influenza virus hemagglutinin: target for the development of a universal vaccine against H5N1 lineages.

ABSTRACT: The nature of influenza virus to randomly mutate and evolve into new types with diverse antigenic determinants is an important challenge in the control of influenza infection. Particularly, variations within the amino acid sequences of major neutralizing epitopes of influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) hindered the development of universal vaccines against H5N1 lineages. Based on distribution analyses of the identified major neutralizing epitopes of hemagglutinin, we selected three vaccine strains that cover the entire variants in the neutralizing epitopes among the H5N1 lineages. HA proteins of selected vaccine strains were expressed on the baculovirus surface (BacHA), and the preclinical efficacy of the vaccine formulations was evaluated in a mouse model. The combination of three selected

SUBMITTER: Prabakaran M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2977865 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature