Media.Player

Tetravalent H5N1 Influenza Vaccine

Detailed Technology Description

None

*Abstract

BackgroundEach year, seasonal influenza causes over 300,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths in the US alone. The emergence of the novel H1N1 influenza virus in 2009 demonstrated how quickly a new influenza pandemic can sweep across the world. The spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses in birds and coincident infections in humans have raised the concerns that H5N1 viruses may cause a new pandemic in humans.Vaccination is an effective method to prevent influenza infection. There are two influenza vaccine approaches licensed in the United States; the inactivated, split vaccine and the live-attenuated virus vaccine. Inactivated vaccines can efficiently induce antibody immune responses but generally only poor cellular immune responses. Live virus vaccines cannot be used in immunocompromised or pregnant patients due to their increased risk of infection. A new method is needed to address these concerns.Technology DescriptionInvestigators at the University of Pittsburgh have designed a second generation recombinant baculovirus (BV) simultaneously displaying four hemagglutinin (HA) proteins. These proteins are essential for the virus to infect cells derived from four different H5N1 flu viruses fused with specific domains of baculovirus gp64 to increase immunogenicity. This H5N1 vaccine is effective against all four homologous H5N1 viruses. It significantly decreased viral lung titers of challenged mice, and provided 100% protection against lethal doses of H5N1 viruses. Moreover, mice vaccinated with the vaccine exhibited high levels of cellular immune response as measured by interferon-gamma secretion and HA-specific CD8 T cells. These results demonstrate that this tetravalent vaccine can stimulate strong antibody, as well as cellular immune responses, and is an effective vaccine for influenza.Applications1) Vaccine development against all four H5N1 viruses2) Vaccine development against other influenzas and virusesAdvantages1) Can be used to generate vaccines to any subtype or of influenza virus2) BV based vaccines can be produced more rapidly than other vaccines3) Can be administered to pregnant or immunocompromised patients; no risk of infection4) Enhanced display of HA from influenza virus on the BV surface5) Both humoral and cellular immune responses are generated6) Can be administered to patients with egg allergiesStage of Development1) Cellular and non-human primate data available2) Pre-IND studies underwayUS Provisional Patent Application filed

*Principal Investigator

Name: Hairong Lu

Department: Med-Center for Vaccine Research (CVR)

Name: Ted Ross

Department: Med-Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Name: Xianchun Tang

Department: Med-Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Country/Region

USA