Immunodominance and Antigenic Variation of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin: Implications for Design of Universal Vaccine Immunogens.

ABSTRACT: Influenza viruses routinely acquire mutations in their hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) glycoproteins that abrogate binding of pre-existing antibodies in a process known as antigenic drift. Most human antibodies against HA and NA are directed against epitopes that are hypervariable and not against epitopes that are conserved among different influenza virus strains. Universal influenza vaccines are currently being developed to elicit protective responses against functionally conserved sites on influenza proteins where viral escape mutations can result in large fitness costs [1]. Universal vaccine targets include the highly conserved HA stem domain [2-12], the less conserved HA receptor-binding site (RBS) [13-16], as well as conserved sites on NA [17-19]. One central challenge of un

SUBMITTER: Zost SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6452323 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature