Institute for Immunization and Prevention, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing Research Center for Preventive Medicine, Beijing, China.
Viral Immunol. 2021 Mar;34(2):112-116. doi: 10.1089/vim.2020.0307. Epub 2021 Feb 11.
The avian influenza A H7N9 virus has caused severe infection and high mortality in humans. It can be extremely hazardous to the elderly since age might diminish the immune response, and poor immunogenicity of H7 hemagglutinin could diminish the vaccine efficacy in this population. To overcome this issue, adjuvants are used to induce a stronger immune response. In this study, we generated a recombinant H7N9 influenza virus using reverse genetic techniques, consisting of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase genes derived from a human H7N9 virus, with the remaining genes from H1N1 A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8). To evaluate whether the adjuvant can improve immune responses in aged animals, the humoral and cellular immune responses of 18-month-old BALB/c mice to different doses of split avian influenza A H7N9 vaccine with and without the adjuvant MF59 were compared. Our data showed that aged mice immunized with MF59 elicited higher levels of hemagglutination inhibition and microneutralization antibodies and interferon-gamma-specific enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) responses when compared with antigens alone. It is suggested that the split avian influenza A H7N9 vaccine combined with MF59 may significantly improve immune responses to influenza vaccination in elderly humans.
甲型 H7N9 禽流感病毒已导致人类严重感染和高死亡率。由于年龄可能会降低免疫反应，老年人感染该病毒的风险极高，而 H7 血凝素的免疫原性差可能会降低该人群的疫苗效力。为了解决这个问题，使用佐剂来诱导更强的免疫反应。在这项研究中，我们使用反向遗传技术生成了一种重组 H7N9 流感病毒，其血凝素和神经氨酸酶基因源自人类 H7N9 病毒，其余基因源自 H1N1/A/Puerto Rico/8/34（PR8）。为了评估佐剂是否能改善老年动物的免疫反应，我们比较了含佐剂 MF59 和不含佐剂 MF59 的不同剂量的裂解型甲型 H7N9 流感疫苗在 18 月龄 BALB/c 小鼠中的体液和细胞免疫反应。我们的数据表明，与抗原单独免疫相比，用 MF59 免疫的老年小鼠产生了更高水平的血凝抑制和微量中和抗体以及干扰素-γ特异性酶联免疫斑点（ELISPOT）反应。这表明，含佐剂 MF59 的裂解型甲型 H7N9 流感疫苗可能会显著改善老年人对流感疫苗的免疫反应。
