Hemagglutinin stalk domain from H5N1 strain as a potentially universal antigen

• Authors: Karolina Uranowska , Jolanta Tyborowska , Anna Jurek , Bogusław Szewczyk , Beata Gromadzka
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Influenza A virus infections are the major public health concern and cause significant morbidity and mortality each year worldwide. Vaccination is the main strategy of influenza epidemic prevention. However, seasonal vaccines induce strain-specific immunity and must be reformulated annually based on prediction of the strains that will circulate in the next season. Thus, it is essential to develop vaccines that would induce broad and persistent immunity to influenza viruses. Hemagglutinin is the major surface antigen of the influenza virus. Recent studies revealed the importance of HA stalk-specific antibodies in neutralization of different influenza virus strains. Therefore, it is important to design an immunogen that would focus the immune response on the HA stalk domain in order to elicit neutralizing antibodies. In the present study, we report characterization of a conserved truncated protein, potentially a universal influenza virus antigen from the H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A virus strain. Our results indicate that exposure of the HA stalk domain containing conserved epitopes results in cross reactivity with different antibodies (against group 1 and 2 HAs). Additionally, we conclude that HA stalk domain contains not only conformational epitopes recognized by universal FI6 antibody, but also linear epitopes recognized by other antibodies.

Keywords

EN

H5N1; universal influenza antigen; hemagglutinin stalk domain; universal influenza antibodies; FI6

• Publisher: Polish Biochemical Society
• Journal: Acta Biochimica Polonica
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 541-550

Dates

published

2014

received

2014-06-13

revised

2014-08-29

accepted

2014-09-02

(unknown)

2014-09-09

Contributors

author

Karolina Uranowska

• Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdańsk, Poland

author

Jolanta Tyborowska

• Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdańsk, Poland

author

Anna Jurek

• Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdańsk, Poland

author

Bogusław Szewczyk

• Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdańsk, Poland

author

Beata Gromadzka

• Department of Recombinant Vaccines, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk, Gdańsk, Poland

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