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Viruses
Special Issues
Universal Influenza Vaccines for Humans and Animals
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Universal Influenza Vaccines for Humans and Animals

A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2025) | Viewed by 3579

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Daniel R. Perez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, Department of Population Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Interests: influenza viruses; emerging viruses; interspecies transmission of viral pathogens; virus entry and replication; virus host-range; virus ecology and evolution
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Seasonal epidemics and occasional pandemics highlight the major public health burden of influenza virus infections in the human population. In addition, influenza outbreaks in a wide range of animal species present a threat to domestic and wild animal well-being and food security. Vaccination is universally accepted as the most effective way to prevent influenza infections. However, the ever-changing nature of these viruses, which mutate through antigenic drift and/or shift, results in escape from earlier immune responses and the need for vaccine reformulation and re-vaccination. Universal vaccine efforts tackling these challenges attempt to improve the strength and/or breadth of the immune response. Outstanding questions include how different vaccines modulate mucosal, humoral and cellular responses, the duration of immunity after vaccination, quality and/or quantity of protective immune responses and the establishment of methods to better understand correlates of protection. This Special Issue is dedicated to novel and/or improved vaccine technologies, manufacturing tools and alternative methods to measuring immune responses to establish more effective universal vaccines and universal platforms to prevent influenza infections in humans and animals. I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to highlight your influenza vaccine research.

Dr. Daniel R Perez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • influenza
  • universal vaccine
  • correlates of protection
  • adjuvant
  • mass vaccination
  • intranasal vaccine inactivated vaccine
  • orthomyxovirus
  • seasonal influenza
  • pandemic influenza
  • highly pathogenic avian influenza
  • swine influenza
  • equine influenza
  • canine influenza
  • avian influenza
  • influenza host range

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1352 KiB  
Article
Reduction of Influenza A Virus Prevalence in Pigs at Weaning After Using Custom-Made Influenza Vaccines in the Breeding Herds of an Integrated Swine Farm System
by Jorge Garrido-Mantilla, Juan Sanhueza, Julio Alvarez, Jeremy S. Pittman, Peter Davies, Montserrat Torremorell and Marie R. Culhane
Viruses 2025, 17(2), 240; https://doi.org/10.3390/v17020240 - 10 Feb 2025
Viewed by 933
Abstract
Vaccination is a common influenza A virus (IAV) control strategy for pigs. Vaccine efficacy depends on strain cross-protection and effective vaccination program implementation. We evaluated a multi-faceted IAV vaccination strategy which included (a) monthly surveillance of pigs at weaning, (b) selection of epidemiologically [...] Read more.
Vaccination is a common influenza A virus (IAV) control strategy for pigs. Vaccine efficacy depends on strain cross-protection and effective vaccination program implementation. We evaluated a multi-faceted IAV vaccination strategy which included (a) monthly surveillance of pigs at weaning, (b) selection of epidemiologically relevant strains from farms under surveillance, (c) updating IAV strains in custom-made vaccines, and (d) seasonal mass vaccination with custom-made vaccines given to sows in 35 farrow-to-wean farms within an integrated swine farm system. Reduction of IAV in pigs from vaccinated sows was determined by monthly monitoring of farms for 30 months by IAV rRT-PCR (PCR) testing of nasal wipes collected from litters of piglets at weaning. Hemagglutinin (HA) nucleotide and amino acid (AA) sequence homology of the circulating and vaccine strains was determined by pairwise alignment and AA comparison at antigenic sites. Of the 35 farms monitored, 28 (80%) tested positive at least once, and 481 (5.75%) of 8352 PCR tests were IAV positive. Complete HA sequences were obtained from 54 H1 (22 H1-δ_1B.2.1, 28 H1-γ_1A.3.3.3, and 4 H1-pdm_1A.3.3.2 clades) and 14 H3 (12 IV-A 3.1990.4.1 and 2 IV-B 3.1990.4.2 clades) circulating IAV strains. During the study, custom-made vaccines were updated three times (eight strains total) and administered to sows at five distinct time periods. The HA AA similarity between vaccine and circulating strains ranged from 95% to 99%; however, the 0 to 71% similarity at HA antigenic sites prompted the vaccine updates. Herd IAV prevalence decreased from 40% (14/35) to 2.9% (1/35), accompanied by a numerical reduction in IAV-positive samples post-vaccination. Our results support having a comprehensive approach to controlling influenza in swine herds that includes surveillance, vaccination, and careful program implementation to reduce IAV in pigs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Universal Influenza Vaccines for Humans and Animals)
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13 pages, 2178 KiB  
Article
A Single-Step Method for Harvesting Influenza Viral Particles from MDCK Cell Culture Supernatant with High Yield and Effective Impurity Removal
by Sixu Liu, Jingqi Li, Qingtian Cheng, Kangyi Duan, Zhan Wang, Shuang Yan, Shuaishuai Tian, Hairui Wang, Shaobin Wu, Xinkui Lei, Yu Yang and Ningning Ma
Viruses 2024, 16(5), 768; https://doi.org/10.3390/v16050768 - 13 May 2024
Viewed by 2293
Abstract
Influenza vaccines, which are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), are the most effective preventive measure against influenza virus infection. Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell culture is an emerging technology used to produce influenza vaccines. One challenge when purifying influenza vaccines using [...] Read more.
Influenza vaccines, which are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), are the most effective preventive measure against influenza virus infection. Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell culture is an emerging technology used to produce influenza vaccines. One challenge when purifying influenza vaccines using this cell culture system is to efficiently remove impurities, especially host cell double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and host cell proteins (HCPs), for safety assurance. In this study, we optimized ion-exchange chromatography methods to harvest influenza viruses from an MDCK cell culture broth, the first step in influenza vaccine purification. Bind/elute was chosen as the mode of operation for simplicity. The anion-exchange Q chromatography method was able to efficiently remove dsDNA and HCPs, but the recovery rate for influenza viruses was low. However, the cation-exchange SP process was able to simultaneously achieve high dsDNA and HCP removal and high influenza virus recovery. For the SP process to work, the clarified cell culture broth needed to be diluted to reduce its ionic strength, and the optimal dilution rate was determined to be 1:2 with purified water. The SP process yielded a virus recovery rate exceeding 90%, as measured using a hemagglutination units (HAUs) assay, with removal efficiencies over 97% for HCPs and over 99% for dsDNA. Furthermore, the general applicability of the SP chromatography method was demonstrated with seven strains of influenza viruses recommended for seasonal influenza vaccine production, including H1N1, H3N2, B (Victoria), and B (Yamagata) strains, indicating that the SP process could be utilized as a platform process. The SP process developed in this study showed four advantages: (1) simple operation, (2) a high recovery rate for influenza viruses, (3) a high removal rate for major impurities, and (4) general applicability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Universal Influenza Vaccines for Humans and Animals)
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