Directed selection of influenza virus produces antigenic variants that match circulating human virus isolates and escape from vaccine-mediated immune protection.

ABSTRACT: Influenza vaccination does not provide 100% protection from infection, partly due to antigenic drift of the haemagglutinin (HA) protein. Low serum antibody titres increase the risk of infection. To determine whether there were additional correlates of risk, we examined the relationship between human serum immunity and antigenic variation in seasonal H3N2 influenza viruses. Seasonal H3N2 vaccine strains grown in the presence of heterogeneous human or mono-specific ferret antisera selected variants with mutations in the HA antigenic sites. Surprisingly, circulating strains infecting human subjects in the same seasons displayed mutations in the same positions, although only in one case did the change correspond to the same amino acid. Serum antibody titres were lower against both the in vitro

SUBMITTER: DeDiego ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4863573 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature