H3N2 Mismatch of 2014-15 Northern Hemisphere Influenza Vaccines and Head-to-head Comparison between Human and Ferret Antisera derived Antigenic Maps

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 15279
• Main Authors: Xie, Hang, Wan, Xiu-Feng, Ye, Zhiping, Plant, Ewan P, Zhao, Yangqing, Xu, Yifei, Li, Xing, Finch, Courtney, Zhao, Nan, Kawano, Toshiaki, Zoueva, Olga, Chiang, Meng-Jung, Jing, Xianghong, Lin, Zhengshi, Zhang, Anding, Zhu, Yanhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 16.10.2015
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Antigens, Viral - immunology; Antisera; Child; Children; Cross Reactions - immunology; Cross-reactivity; Ferrets - immunology; Hemagglutination inhibition; Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests; Humans; Immune Sera - immunology; Immunization; Influenza; Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype - metabolism; Influenza Vaccines - immunology; Influenza, Human - prevention & control; Lectins - chemistry; Lectins - metabolism; Models, Molecular; Molecular modelling; Protein Structure, Tertiary; Strains (organisms); Vaccination; Vaccines
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep15279

The poor performance of 2014-15 Northern Hemisphere (NH) influenza vaccines was attributed to mismatched H3N2 component with circulating epidemic strains. Using human serum samples collected from 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2014-15 NH influenza vaccine trials, we assessed their cross-reactive hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) antibody responses against recent H3 epidemic isolates. All three populations (children, adults, and older adults) vaccinated with the 2014-15 NH egg- or cell-based vaccine, showed >50% reduction in HAI post-vaccination geometric mean titers against epidemic H3 isolates from those against egg-grown H3 vaccine strain A/Texas/50/2012 (TX/12e). The 2014-15 NH vaccines, regardless of production type, failed to further extend HAI cross-reactivity against H3 epidemic strains from previous seasonal vaccines. Head-to-head comparison between ferret and human antisera derived antigenic maps revealed different antigenic patterns among representative egg- and cell-grown H3 viruses characterized. Molecular modeling indicated that the mutations of epidemic H3 strains were mainly located in antibody-binding sites A and B as compared with TX/12e. To improve vaccine strain selection, human serologic testing on vaccination-induced cross-reactivity need be emphasized along with virus antigenic characterization by ferret model.