A mosaic hemagglutinin-based influenza virus vaccine candidate protects mice from challenge with divergent H3N2 strains.

ABSTRACT: Current seasonal influenza virus vaccines only provide limited, short-lived protection, and antigenic drift in the hemagglutinin surface glycoprotein necessitates their annual re-formulation and re-administration. To overcome these limitations, universal vaccine strategies that aim at eliciting broadly protective antibodies to conserved epitopes of the hemagglutinin show promise for protecting against diverse and drifted influenza viruses. Here a vaccination strategy that focuses antibody responses to conserved epitopes of the H3 hemagglutinin is described. The approach is based on antigenic silencing of the immunodominant major antigenic sites of an H3 protein from 2014 by replacing them with corresponding sequences of exotic avian hemagglutinins, yielding "mosaic" hemagglutinins. In mice

SUBMITTER: Broecker F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6642189 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature