Abstract
Suboptimal vaccine effectiveness against seasonal influenza is a significant public health concern, partly explained by antigenic differences between vaccine viruses and viruses circulating in the environment. Haemagglutinin mutations within vaccine viruses acquired during serial passage in eggs have been identified as a source of antigenic variation between vaccine and circulating viruses. This study retrospectively compared the antigenic similarity of circulating influenza isolates with egg- and cell-propagated reference viruses to assess any observable trends over a 16-year period. Using annual and interim reports published by the Worldwide Influenza Centre, London, for the 2002–2003 to 2017–2018 influenza seasons, we assessed the proportions of circulating viruses which showed antigenic similarity to reference viruses by season. Egg-propagated reference viruses were well matched against circulating viruses for A/H1N1 and B/Yamagata. However, A/H3N2 and B/Victoria cell-propagated reference viruses appeared to be more antigenically similar to circulating A/H3N2 and B/Victoria viruses than egg-propagated reference viruses. These data support the possibility that A/H3N2 and B/Victoria viruses are relatively more prone to egg-adaptive mutation. Cell-propagated A/H3N2 and B/Victoria reference viruses were more antigenically similar to circulating A/H3N2 and B/Victoria viruses over a 16-year period than were egg-propagated reference viruses.
Highlights
Vaccination is recognized as being the most effective method of preventing seasonal influenza disease [1]
The term ”candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs)” refers to influenza strains which were included in seasonal influenza vaccines; the term ”reference strains” refers to influenza strains against which circulating strains were tested by haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay and plaque reduction neutralization assays (PRNA)
In all but two of the seasons for which data were available for both egg- and cell-propagated reference viruses, a higher proportion of circulating A/H3N2 strains were antigenically similar to cell-propagated as compared with egg-propagated reference viruses (Figure 1)
Summary
Vaccination is recognized as being the most effective method of preventing seasonal influenza disease [1]. Over the past several decades, seasonal influenza vaccines have provided important public health benefits, in terms of reduced incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI), general practitioner visits, hospitalizations, and influenza-associated mortality [2,3,4]. In advance of the beginning of the influenza season, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts which influenza viruses will be dominant in the upcoming season, and based on this assessment, recommends candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) for inclusion in vaccines for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres [5]. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 5423; doi:10.3390/ijerph17155423 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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