Universal Live-Attenuated Influenza Vaccine Candidates Expressing Multiple M2e Epitopes Protect Ferrets against a High-Dose Heterologous Virus Challenge.

ABSTRACT: The development of an influenza vaccine with broad protection and durability remains an attractive idea due to the high mutation rate of the influenza virus. An extracellular domain of Matrix 2 protein (M2e) is among the most attractive target for the universal influenza vaccine owing to its high conservancy rate. Here, we generated two recombinant live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) candidates encoding four M2e epitopes representing consensus sequences of human, avian and swine influenza viruses, and studied them in a preclinical ferret model. Both LAIV+4M2e viruses induced higher levels of M2e-specific antibodies compared to the control LAIV strain, with the LAIV/HA+4M2e candidate being significantly more immunogenic than the LAIV/NS+4M2e counterpart. A high-dose heterosubtypic infl

SUBMITTER: Mezhenskaya D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8310119 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature