RESUMEN
The various strains of influenza virus cause respiratory symptoms in humans every year and annual vaccinations are recommended. Due to its RNA-type genes and segmented state, it belongs to a virus that mutates frequently with antigenic drift and shift, giving rise to various strains. Each year, the World Health Organization identifies the epidemic strains and operates a global surveillance system to suggest the viral composition for the influenza vaccine. Influenza viruses, which have multiple viral strains, are produced in the format of multivalent vaccine. However, the multivalent vaccine has a possibility of causing immune interference by introducing multiple strain-specific antigens in a single injection. Therefore, evaluating immune interference phenomena is essential when assessing multivalent vaccines. In this study, the protective ability and immunogenicity of multivalent and monovalent vaccines were evaluated in mice to assess immune interference in the multivalent vaccine. Monovalent and multivalent vaccines were manufactured using the latest strain of the 2022-2023 seasonal influenza virus selected by the World Health Organization. The protective abilities of both types of vaccines were tested through hemagglutination inhibition test. The immunogenicity of multivalent and monovalent vaccines were tested through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to measure the cellular and humoral immunity expression rates. As a result of the protective ability and immunogenicity test, higher level of virus neutralizing ability and greater amount of antibodies in both IgG1 and IgG2 were confirmed in the multivalent vaccine. No immune interference was found to affect the protective capacity and immune responses of the multivalent vaccines.
RESUMEN
Influenza A virus causes numerous deaths and infections worldwide annually. Therefore, we have considered nanobodies as a potential treatment for patients with severe cases of influenza. We developed a nanobody that was expected to have protective efficacy against the A/California/04/2009 (CA/04; pandemic 2009 flu strain) and evaluated its therapeutic efficacy against CA/04 in mice experiments. This nanobody was derived from the immunization of the alpaca, and the inactivated CA/04 virus was used as an immunogen. We successfully generated a nanobody library through bio-panning, phage ELISA, and Bio-layer interferometry. Moreover, we confirmed that administering nanobodies after lethal doses of CA/04 reduced viral replication in the lungs and influenza-induced clinical signs in mice. These research findings will help to develop nanobodies as viral therapeutics for CA/04 and other infectious viruses.