RESUMO
Influenza virus infection poses a continual menace to public health. Here, we developed soluble trimeric HA ectodomain vaccines by establishing interprotomer disulfide bonds in the stem region, which effectively preserve the native antigenicity of stem epitopes. The stable trimeric H1 ectodomain proteins exhibited higher thermal stabilities in comparison with unmodified HAs and showed strong binding activities towards a panel of anti-stem cross-reactive antibodies that recognize either interprotomer or intraprotomer epitopes. Negative stain transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed the stable trimer architecture of the interprotomer disulfide-stapled WA11#5, NC99#2, and FLD#1 proteins as well as the irregular aggregation of unmodified HA molecules. Immunizations of mice with those trimeric HA ectodomain vaccines formulated with incomplete Freund's adjuvant elicited significantly more potent cross-neutralizing antibody responses and offered broader immuno-protection against lethal infections with heterologous influenza strains compared to unmodified HA proteins. Additionally, the findings of our study indicate that elevated levels of HA stem-specific antibody responses correlate with strengthened cross-protections. Our design strategy has proven effective in trimerizing HA ectodomains derived from both influenza A and B viruses, thereby providing a valuable reference for designing future influenza HA immunogens.
Assuntos
Anticorpos Neutralizantes , Anticorpos Antivirais , Dissulfetos , Glicoproteínas de Hemaglutininação de Vírus da Influenza , Vacinas contra Influenza , Camundongos Endogâmicos BALB C , Infecções por Orthomyxoviridae , Animais , Vacinas contra Influenza/imunologia , Vacinas contra Influenza/genética , Glicoproteínas de Hemaglutininação de Vírus da Influenza/imunologia , Glicoproteínas de Hemaglutininação de Vírus da Influenza/genética , Glicoproteínas de Hemaglutininação de Vírus da Influenza/química , Anticorpos Antivirais/imunologia , Camundongos , Dissulfetos/química , Infecções por Orthomyxoviridae/prevenção & controle , Infecções por Orthomyxoviridae/imunologia , Infecções por Orthomyxoviridae/virologia , Anticorpos Neutralizantes/imunologia , Feminino , Proteção Cruzada/imunologia , Reações Cruzadas , Humanos , Influenza Humana/prevenção & controle , Influenza Humana/imunologia , Influenza Humana/virologia , Epitopos/imunologia , Epitopos/genética , Epitopos/química , Multimerização Proteica , Vírus da Influenza B/imunologia , Vírus da Influenza B/genética , Vírus da Influenza B/químicaRESUMO
Neuraminidase is suggested as an important component for developing a universal influenza vaccine. Targeted induction of neuraminidase-specific broadly protective antibodies by vaccinations is challenging. To overcome this, we rationally select the highly conserved peptides from the consensus amino acid sequence of the globular head domains of neuraminidase. Inspired by the B cell receptor evolution process, a reliable sequential immunization regimen is designed to result in immuno-focusing by steering bulk immune responses to a selected region where broadly protective B lymphocyte epitopes reside. After priming neuraminidase protein-specific antibody responses in C57BL/6 or BALB/c inbred mice strains by immunization or pre-infection, boost immunizations with certain neuraminidase-derived peptide-keyhole limpet hemocyanin conjugates significantly strengthened serum neuraminidase inhibition activities and cross-protections. Overall, this study provides proof of concept for a peptide-based sequential immunization strategy for achieving targeted induction of cross-protective antibody response, which provides references for designing universal vaccines against other highly variable pathogens.
Assuntos
Vírus da Influenza A Subtipo H1N1 , Virus da Influenza A Subtipo H5N1 , Vacinas contra Influenza , Influenza Humana , Infecções por Orthomyxoviridae , Animais , Camundongos , Humanos , Infecções por Orthomyxoviridae/prevenção & controle , Neuraminidase , Anticorpos Antivirais , Camundongos Endogâmicos C57BL , Vacinação , Peptídeos , Camundongos Endogâmicos BALB C , Glicoproteínas de Hemaglutininação de Vírus da InfluenzaRESUMO
Influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) stem is currently regarded as an extremely promising immunogen for designing universal influenza vaccines. The appropriate antigen-presenting vaccine vector would be conducive to increasing the immunogenicity of the HA stem antigen. In this study, we generated chimeric virus-like particles (cVLPs) co-displaying the truncated C-terminal of DnaK from Escherichia coli and H1 stem or full-length H1 antigen using the baculovirus expression system. Transmission electronic micrography revealed the expression and presentation of H1 stem antigens on the surface of VLPs. Vaccinations of mice with the H1 stem cVLPs induced H1-specific immune responses and provided heterologous immune protection in vivo, which was more effective than vaccinations with VLPs displaying H1 stem alone in protecting mice against weight loss as well as increasing survival rates after lethal influenza viral challenge. The results indicate that the incorporation of the truncated C-terminal of DnaK as an adjuvant protein into the cVLPs significantly enhances the H1-specific immunity and immune protection. We have explicitly identified the VLP platform as an effective way of expressing HA stem antigen and revealed that chimeric VLP is an vaccine vector for developing HA stem-based universal influenza vaccines.