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Review
. 2017 Nov;16(11):1141-1154.
doi: 10.1080/14760584.2017.1379396. Epub 2017 Sep 19.

Vaccine approaches conferring cross-protection against influenza viruses

Sai V Vemula  1 , Ekramy E Sayedahmed  1 , Suryaprakash Sambhara  2 , Suresh K Mittal  1
Affiliations
Review

Vaccine approaches conferring cross-protection against influenza viruses

Sai V Vemula et al. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2017 Nov.

Abstract

Annual vaccination is one of the most efficient and cost-effective strategies to prevent and control influenza epidemics. Most of the currently available influenza vaccines are strong inducers of antibody responses against viral surface proteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), but are poor inducers of cell-mediated immune responses against conserved internal proteins. Moreover, due to the high variability of viral surface proteins because of antigenic drift or antigenic shift, many of the currently licensed vaccines confer little or no protection against drift or shift variants. Areas covered: Next generation influenza vaccines that can induce humoral immune responses to receptor-binding epitopes as well as broadly neutralizing conserved epitopes, and cell-mediated immune responses against highly conserved internal proteins would be effective against variant viruses as well as a novel pandemic influenza until circulating strain-specific vaccines become available. Here we discuss vaccine approaches that have the potential to provide broad spectrum protection against influenza viruses. Expert commentary: Based on current progress in defining cross-protective influenza immunity, it seems that the development of a universal influenza vaccine is feasible. It would revolutionize the strategy for influenza pandemic preparedness, and significantly impact the shelf-life and protection efficacy of seasonal influenza vaccines.

Keywords: Influenza viruses; avian influenza viruses; cross protection; novel influenza vaccines; pandemic influenza; pandemic preparedness; universal influenza vaccine.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Timeline of influenza A pandemics and human infections by emerging influenza A viruses
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Major strategies for broader cross-protection against influenza viruses
HA, hemagglutinin; HA2, HA stem domain; M2e, matrix protein 2 ectodomain; NP, nucleoprotein; NA, neuraminidase; M1, matrix protein 1; VLP, virus-like particle; C.A.D. consensus antigenic domain; ISCOMs, immune stimulating complexes; LT, heat-labile enterotoxin; CT, cholera toxin and mAbs, monoclonal antibodies.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of influenza A virus illustrating the virus components
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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