Media Counseling
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
What
A trial single-dose vaccine, intranasal flu was safe and produced a stable immune response when tested in a Phase 1 study published in the Journal of Clinical Research. The test vaccine, known as Ad4-H5-VTN, is a recombinant, adenovirus replication vaccine designed to stimulate antibodies to hemagglutinin, a protein found on the surface of influenza viruses that binds to human cells.
The study vaccine was developed by Emergent Biosolutions Inc., (Gaithersburg, Maryland). It was administered intravenously (28 study participants), as an oral capsule (10 participants) and via tonsillar swab (25 participants) to healthy men and non-pregnant women aged 18 to 49 years.
Participants who received the vaccine intravenously or through a tonsillar swab showed significantly higher neutral antibody levels compared with the group that received the oral vaccine capsule. Participants who received the intranasal vaccine peel viral DNA for two to four weeks, but the virus could be localized for a median of just one day. Participants had evidence of CD4 + and CD8 + H5-specific T-cell T-cell responses. In addition, volunteers who received the intranasal vaccine had high levels of serum neutralizing antibodies at 26 weeks after vaccine, and this level was unchanged at three to five years after a single intranasal dose of the vaccine. The duration of viral shedding was associated with a high amount of antibody-neutralizing response at week 26. In addition, intranasal vaccination stimulated mucosal antibody response in the nose, mouth, and rectum.
The study’s authors argue that replica vector vaccines that are comparable to other types of vaccines may have advantages because they can express viral proteins at higher levels and for longer periods of time. In addition, this type of vaccine stimulates a mucosal immune response that is essential for restricting the spread of viruses that affect mucosal tissues.
The vaccine platform could be quite flexible for use against other viruses including HIV and SARS-CoV-2, according to the authors.
Article
K Matsuda et al. Influenza-induced Adenovirus vaccines include systemic and mucosal immunity. Journal of Clinical Research DOI: doi.org/10.1172/JCI140794.
Who
Mark Connors, MD, head of the HIV-Specific Immunization Division in the NIAID Immunoregulation laboratory and lead investigator for the Phase 1 study, is available for interviews.
NIAID conducts and supports research – at NIH, across the United States, and around the world – to investigate the causes of infectious and immunosuppressive diseases, and to develop better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat these diseases. Press releases, information sheets and other NIAID-related materials can be found on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, comprises 27 Institutes and Centers and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the leading federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical examination, and examines the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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