Speakers
Description
Swine influenza viruses (SIVs), though not causing abundant mortality, need to be controlled since swine can act as mixing vessels favoring genome reassortment of diverse influenza viruses. To prevent possible emergences of new influenza virus variants, good vaccination strategies remain crucial. We focused on the use of potential conserved immunogenic hemagglutin peptide (HA-peptide) acting as multivalent vaccines and have reported their use in vaccine formulations. In the present work we combined different conserved HA-epitopes expressed along with flagellin, an adjuvant that interferes with innate immune response, reverse-translated to a pCDNA3.1(+) plasmid and were used as vaccines against SIV infection. Vaccination studies were performed in conventional farm pigs sero-positive to SIV (maternal derived antibodies, MDA) as well as in pigs selected for absence of MDA (sero-negative) to SIV. Vaccine efficacy was evaluated based on virus detection, immune response elicited and protection conferred to pH1N1 or SwH3N2 virus challenge. Our results demonstrated complete elimination and/or significant reduction in viral shedding in both experimental conditions within the first week after challenge suggesting vaccine efficacy against both the SIV subtypes (H1 and H3). It also demonstrates that maternally derived antibodies (MDA) were not an obstacle for the vaccine approach employed. An elevated boost in antibodies both against H1 and H3 in sera and BALF were detected in vaccinated animals along with strongly increased mucosal IgAs. Additionally, vaccinated animals mounted strong neutralizing antibodies in BALF. We consider that the vaccine formulation described here could potentially be used as a multivalent vaccine against influenza viruses.
| Choose primary session | Vaccines and antivirals |
|---|---|
| Choose secondary Session | Innate Immunity |
