Influenza a Neuraminidase-Based Bivalent mRNA Vaccine Induces Th1-Type Immune Response and Provides Protective Effects in Mice

Vaccines are one of the most effective means of preventing influenza A, typically containing the hemagglutinin (HA) of the influenza A virus. However, antigenic drift and shift of the influenza A virus can lead to instability in vaccine efficacy. Compared to HA, the antigenic variation rate of neura...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mingyang Li, Mengyuan Liu, Shaohui Song, Ruirui Zhao, Yun Xie, Jing Liu, Lilan Xu, Xuefeng Ma, Mingyu Song, Jian Zhou, Guoyang Liao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-03-01
Series:Vaccines
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/12/3/300
Description
Summary:Vaccines are one of the most effective means of preventing influenza A, typically containing the hemagglutinin (HA) of the influenza A virus. However, antigenic drift and shift of the influenza A virus can lead to instability in vaccine efficacy. Compared to HA, the antigenic variation rate of neuraminidase (NA) is slower. In traditional inactivated influenza vaccines, although they contain a certain amount of NA, there are significant differences between different batches, which cannot consistently induce NA-based immune responses. Therefore, NA is often overlooked in vaccine development. In this study, we report an mRNA vaccine encoding the NA of two strains of influenza A virus. The experimental results demonstrated that when matched with the viral strain, this mRNA vaccine induced high levels of neutralizing antibodies, providing a protective effect to mice in viral challenge experiments, and this immune response was shown to be biased towards the Th1 type. In summary, this study demonstrates that NA is a promising potential antigen, providing new insights for the development of influenza A virus vaccines.
ISSN:2076-393X