HPLC-based quantification of haemagglutinin in the production of egg- and MDCK cell-derived influenza virus seasonal and pandemic vaccines.

The haemagglutinin (HA) content is an important specification of influenza vaccines. Recently, a reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for quantification of HA in PER.C6 cell culture-based whole virus vaccines has been reported, having a high sensitivity, precision, broad range, and high sample throughput [Kapteyn JC, Drissi Saidi M, Dijkstra R, Kars C, Tjon CMS-K, Weverling GJ et al. Haemagglutinin quantification and identification of influenza A&B strains propagated in PER.C6 cells: a novel RP-HPLC method. Vaccine 2006;24:3137-44]. This RP-HPLC assay is based on measuring the peak area of HA1, the hydrophilic subunit of HA, which turned out to be proportional to the amount of HA analyzed. Here, we present data demonstrating that this RP-HPLC method is also highly suitable for HA quantification of active and BPL- or formaldehyde-inactivated egg-based and MDCK cell-based whole virus samples, including egg allantoic harvest, and in final (monovalent) subunit vaccines, including those for pandemic H5N1 strains and for virosomal vaccines. In addition, the RP-HPLC assay was demonstrated to be a very powerful tool in the early stages of seasonal influenza vaccine production, when homologous serial radial immunodiffusion (SRID) reagents are not yet available, enabling fast and reliable viral growth studies in eggs in order to select the best growing virus strains or reassortants for the production of the seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine. Because of its high sensitivity, the RP-HPLC assay has shown its enormous value in supporting small scale MDCK-based (H5N1) influenza virus production models. Finally, the observed differences between HA1 molecules from various HA subtypes in UV absorbance, FLD response, and in the actual retention times in RP-HPLC are discussed in relation to the primary structure of the HA1 molecules studied.

A zinc finger-containing papain-like protease couples subgenomic mRNA synthesis to genome translation in a positive-stranded RNA virus.

The genome expression of positive-stranded RNA viruses starts with translation rather than transcription. For some viruses, the genome is the only viral mRNA and expression is regulated primarily at the translational level and by limited proteolysis of polyproteins. Other virus groups also generate subgenomic mRNAs later in the reproductive cycle. For nidoviruses, subgenomic mRNA synthesis (transcription) is discontinuous and yields a 5' and 3' coterminal nested set of mRNAs. Nidovirus transcription is not essential for genome replication, which relies on the autoprocessing products of two replicase polyproteins that are translated from the genome. We now show that the N-terminal replicase subunit, nonstructural protein 1 (nsp1), of the nidovirus equine arteritis virus is in fact dispensable for replication but crucial for transcription, thereby coupling replicase expression and subgenomic mRNA synthesis in an unprecedented manner. Nsp1 is composed of two papain-like protease domains and a predicted N-terminal zinc finger, which was implicated in transcription by site-directed mutagenesis. The structural integrity of nsp1 is essential, suggesting that the protease domains form a platform for the zinc finger to operate in transcription.