Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines
Influenza virus remains a serious public health burden due to ongoing viral evolution. Vaccination remains the best measure of prophylaxis, yet current seasonal vaccines elicit strain-specific neutralizing responses that favor the hypervariable epitopes on the virus. This necessitates yearly reformu...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Vaccines |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/2/125 |
| _version_ | 1827603046723485696 |
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| author | Maya Sangesland Daniel Lingwood |
| author_facet | Maya Sangesland Daniel Lingwood |
| author_sort | Maya Sangesland |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Influenza virus remains a serious public health burden due to ongoing viral evolution. Vaccination remains the best measure of prophylaxis, yet current seasonal vaccines elicit strain-specific neutralizing responses that favor the hypervariable epitopes on the virus. This necessitates yearly reformulations of seasonal vaccines, which can be limited in efficacy and also shortchange pandemic preparedness. Universal vaccine development aims to overcome these deficits by redirecting antibody responses to functionally conserved sites of viral vulnerability to enable broad coverage. However, this is challenging as such antibodies are largely immunologically silent, both following vaccination and infection. Defining and then overcoming the immunological basis for such subdominant or ‘immuno-recessive’ antibody targeting has thus become an important aspect of universal vaccine development. This, coupled with structure-guided immunogen design, has led to proof-of-concept that it is possible to rationally refocus humoral immunity upon normally ‘unseen’ broadly neutralizing antibody targets on influenza virus. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:31:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-519fc7d38f5d4f99a240ddc7bce6e4a7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-393X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:31:12Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Vaccines |
| spelling | doaj.art-519fc7d38f5d4f99a240ddc7bce6e4a72023-12-03T12:32:21ZengMDPI AGVaccines2076-393X2021-02-019212510.3390/vaccines9020125Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza VaccinesMaya Sangesland0Daniel Lingwood1The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139, USAThe Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139, USAInfluenza virus remains a serious public health burden due to ongoing viral evolution. Vaccination remains the best measure of prophylaxis, yet current seasonal vaccines elicit strain-specific neutralizing responses that favor the hypervariable epitopes on the virus. This necessitates yearly reformulations of seasonal vaccines, which can be limited in efficacy and also shortchange pandemic preparedness. Universal vaccine development aims to overcome these deficits by redirecting antibody responses to functionally conserved sites of viral vulnerability to enable broad coverage. However, this is challenging as such antibodies are largely immunologically silent, both following vaccination and infection. Defining and then overcoming the immunological basis for such subdominant or ‘immuno-recessive’ antibody targeting has thus become an important aspect of universal vaccine development. This, coupled with structure-guided immunogen design, has led to proof-of-concept that it is possible to rationally refocus humoral immunity upon normally ‘unseen’ broadly neutralizing antibody targets on influenza virus.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/2/125influenza virusantibody responseuniversal vaccineimmunodominancebroadly neutralizing antibodiesB cell immunology |
| spellingShingle | Maya Sangesland Daniel Lingwood Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines Vaccines influenza virus antibody response universal vaccine immunodominance broadly neutralizing antibodies B cell immunology |
| title | Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines |
| title_full | Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines |
| title_fullStr | Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines |
| title_full_unstemmed | Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines |
| title_short | Antibody Focusing to Conserved Sites of Vulnerability: The Immunological Pathways for ‘Universal’ Influenza Vaccines |
| title_sort | antibody focusing to conserved sites of vulnerability the immunological pathways for universal influenza vaccines |
| topic | influenza virus antibody response universal vaccine immunodominance broadly neutralizing antibodies B cell immunology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/2/125 |
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