Vaccine. 2008 Oct 1. [Epub ahead of print]
Universal influenza A M2e-HBc vaccine protects against disease even in the presence of pre-existing anti-HBc antibodies.
De Filette M, Martens W, Smet A, Schotsaert M, Birkett A, Londo?o-Arcila P, Fiers W, Saelens X. - Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, VIB, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
The extracellular domain of influenza A virus matrix protein 2 (M2e) is strongly conserved.
Therefore, vaccines based on M2e can induce broad-spectrum immunity against influenza.
We have mainly used recombinant virus-like particles derived from Hepatitis B virus core (HBc) as carrier for efficacious presentation of the M2e antigen.
Here, we address whether pre-existing HBc-specific immunity interferes with the protective immune response obtained by M2e-HBc vaccination.
Anti-HBc antibodies were induced by immunizing mice with unsubstituted HBc virus-like particles in the presence of two different adjuvants.
We demonstrate that pre-existing HBc-specific antibodies affect neither the induction of M2e-specific antibody responses to vaccination with M2e-HBc particles, nor the protective efficacy of the resulting response.
These results suggest that vaccination with M2e-HBc can induce protective anti-M2e antibodies even in anti-HBc positive individuals.
The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the clinical development of an M2e-based universal influenza vaccine, which recently successfully completed a Phase I trial.
PMID: 18835315 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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Universal influenza A M2e-HBc vaccine protects against disease even in the presence of pre-existing anti-HBc antibodies.
De Filette M, Martens W, Smet A, Schotsaert M, Birkett A, Londo?o-Arcila P, Fiers W, Saelens X. - Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, VIB, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
The extracellular domain of influenza A virus matrix protein 2 (M2e) is strongly conserved.
Therefore, vaccines based on M2e can induce broad-spectrum immunity against influenza.
We have mainly used recombinant virus-like particles derived from Hepatitis B virus core (HBc) as carrier for efficacious presentation of the M2e antigen.
Here, we address whether pre-existing HBc-specific immunity interferes with the protective immune response obtained by M2e-HBc vaccination.
Anti-HBc antibodies were induced by immunizing mice with unsubstituted HBc virus-like particles in the presence of two different adjuvants.
We demonstrate that pre-existing HBc-specific antibodies affect neither the induction of M2e-specific antibody responses to vaccination with M2e-HBc particles, nor the protective efficacy of the resulting response.
These results suggest that vaccination with M2e-HBc can induce protective anti-M2e antibodies even in anti-HBc positive individuals.
The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the clinical development of an M2e-based universal influenza vaccine, which recently successfully completed a Phase I trial.
PMID: 18835315 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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