Abstract
Vaccination is still the most efficient way to prevent an infection with influenza viruses. Nevertheless, existing commercial vaccines face serious limitations such as availability during epidemic outbreaks and their efficacy. Existing seasonal influenza vaccines mostly induce antibody responses to the surface proteins of influenza viruses, which frequently change due to antigenic shift and or drift, thus allowing influenza viruses to avoid neutralizing antibodies. Hence, influenza vaccines need a yearly formulation to protect against new seasonal viruses. A broadly protective or universal influenza vaccine must induce effective humoral as well as cellular immunity against conserved influenza antigens, offer good protection against influenza pandemics, be safe, and have a fast production platform. Nanotechnology has great potential to improve vaccine delivery, immunogenicity, and host immune responses. As new strains of human epidemic influenza virus strains could originate from poultry and swine viruses, development of a new universal influenza vaccine will require the immune responses to be directed against viruses from different hosts. This review discusses how the new vaccine platforms and nanoparticles can be beneficial in the development of a broadly protective, universal influenza vaccine.
Highlights
Influenza viruses possess single-stranded negative-sense viral RNA genomes belonging to the Orthomyxoviridae family
Inside the envelope is the matrix protein layer consisting of the viral matrix protein 1 (M1) and the core viral ribonucleoprotein
The 24-month clinical trial from April 2018 was conducted to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of the combined vaccines, which is still under progress in three United States sites [63]. Another recombinant protein based on matrix protein 2 (M2) ectodomain (M2e) was produced in E. coli by the fusion of two tandem copies of consensus M2e sequences from human influenza A and two copies of M2e from avian A/H5N1 viruses linked to the flagellin of Salmonella typhimurium
Summary
Influenza viruses possess single-stranded negative-sense viral RNA (vRNA) genomes belonging to the Orthomyxoviridae family. Influenza virus can cause seasonal or pandemic influenza infections [3]. There is a crucial need to develop more effective “broadly-reactive” or “universal” influenza vaccine with high protection efficacy against new potential seasonal and pandemic strains. Pre-existing CD8 T cell responses against the relatively conserved internal antigens of the influenza virus are highly desirable as they could elicit immune responses towards multiple viral strains, providing higher cross-protection capability in the absence of neutralizing antibodies [21]. We review the commercial influenza vaccines, different arms of the immune responses, and variable as well as conserved viral targets, and discuss recent scientific progress in the development of virus-like particles (VLPs), nucleic acid (DNA and mRNA), and peptide-based vaccines as potential next-generation universal influenza vaccines
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