Development of broadly reactive influenza vaccines by targeting the conserved regions of the hemagglutinin stem and head domains
Influenza virus infections cause serious illness in millions of people each year. Although influenza virus vaccines are available, they are not optimally effective due to mismatches between the influenza virus strains used for the vaccine and the circulating strains. To improve protection by vaccine...
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Published in | Expert review of vaccines Vol. 19; no. 6; pp. 563 - 577 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Taylor & Francis
02.06.2020
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Influenza virus infections cause serious illness in millions of people each year. Although influenza virus vaccines are available, they are not optimally effective due to mismatches between the influenza virus strains used for the vaccine and the circulating strains. To improve protection by vaccines, a broadly protective or universal vaccine may be required. Strategies to develop universal vaccines aim to elicit broadly reactive antibodies, which target regions on the viral hemagglutinin (HA) protein which are conserved between strains. Broadly reactive antibodies have helped to identify such targets and can guide the design of such a vaccine.
The first part of this review provides an in-depth overview of broadly reactive anti-HA antibodies, discussing their origin, breadth and their mechanisms of protection. The second part discusses the technical design and mode of action of potential universal vaccine candidates that aim to elicit these broadly reactive antibodies and provide protection against a majority of influenza strains.
While great strides have been made in the development of universal influenza vaccine candidates, real-life use still requires improvement of stability, enhancement of their breadth of protection and ease of production, while efficacies need to be determined in human trials. |
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ISSN: | 1476-0584 1744-8395 |
DOI: | 10.1080/14760584.2020.1777861 |