Evaluations for In Vitro Correlates of Immunogenicity of Inactivated Influenza A H5, H7 and H9 Vaccines in Humans

Robert B Couch,William K Decker,Gillian M Air,Jing Qi Feng,Matthew M Halpert,Robert L Atmar,Budi Utama,Diane Niño,Eliane Namie Miyaji

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050830

Robert B Couch, William K Decker + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050830

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Abstract

BackgroundSerum antibody responses in humans to inactivated influenza A (H5N1), (H9N2) and A (H7) vaccines have been varied but frequently low, particularly for subunit vaccines without adjuvant despite hemagglutinin (HA) concentrations expected to induce good responses.DesignTo help understand the low responses to subunit vaccines, we evaluated influenza A (H5N1), (H9N2), (H7N7) vaccines and 2009 pandemic (H1N1) vaccines for antigen uptake, processing and presentation by dendritic cells to T cells, conformation of vaccine HA in antibody binding assays and gel analyses, HA titers with different red blood cells, and vaccine morphology in electron micrographs (EM).ResultsAntigen uptake, processing and presentation of H5, H7, H9 and H1 vaccine preparations evaluated in humans appeared normal. No differences were detected in antibody interactions with vaccine and matched virus; although H7 trimer was not detected in western blots, no abnormalities in the conformation of the HA antigens were identified. The lowest HA titers for the vaccines were <1∶4 for the H7 vaccine and 1∶661 for an H9 vaccine; these vaccines induced the fewest antibody responses. A (H1N1) vaccines were the most immunogenic in humans; intact virus and virus pieces were prominent in EM. A good immunogenic A (H9N2) vaccine contained primarily particles of viral membrane with external HA and NA. A (H5N1) vaccines intermediate in immunogenicity were mostly indistinct structural units with stellates; the least immunogenic A (H7N7) vaccine contained mostly small 5 to 20 nm structures.SummaryAntigen uptake, processing and presentation to human T cells and conformation of the HA appeared normal for each inactivated influenza A vaccine. Low HA titer was associated with low immunogenicity and presence of particles or split virus pieces was associated with higher immunogenicity.

Highlights

In a companion manuscript we reported a clinical trial of an inactivated subunit avian influenza A/H7N7 vaccine in healthy young adults that exhibited low immunogenicity despite vaccinations with two doses of up to 90 mg of the HA as determined in single radial immunodiffusion assays (SRID) [1]
Evaluations For evaluations, we included vaccine lots that were used for immunogenicity trials identified in Table 1, their HA proteins, their seed viruses, and p2009 (H1N1) vaccines and HA
The A/ Vietnam/04 (H5N1) vaccine used for the in vitro evaluations was from the licensed vaccine used for the clinical trials reported in references 5, 6 and 10

Summary

Introduction

In a companion manuscript we reported a clinical trial of an inactivated subunit avian influenza A/H7N7 vaccine in healthy young adults that exhibited low immunogenicity despite vaccinations with two doses of up to 90 mg of the HA as determined in single radial immunodiffusion assays (SRID) [1]. This result prompted us to conduct some in vitro testing of this vaccine and some others in an effort to better understand the reasons for the low immunogenicity of unadjuvanted subunit avian influenza A virus vaccines in humans. Serum antibody responses in humans to inactivated influenza A (H5N1), (H9N2) and A (H7) vaccines have been varied but frequently low, for subunit vaccines without adjuvant despite hemagglutinin (HA) concentrations expected to induce good responses

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