Researchers discover that the immune response against influenza can be enhanced with a protein nanoparticle vaccine that includes an adjuvant.

A new study by researchers at the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University revealed that a groundbreaking protein nanoparticle vaccine formulation, containing influenza proteins and adjuvant that enhances immune responses, delivered complete protection against influenza viral challenges.

Published in the journal Small, the findings describe a promising influenza vaccine being developed that employs adjuvants to increase the vaccine’s efficacy against viral infections. The researchers created a new type of core/shell protein nanoparticle that includes influenza nucleoprotein as the core and NA1-M2e or NA2-M2e surface proteins as coating antigens, and the surface protein coating could be precisely controlled in the process and excess coating proteins could be recovered for reuse. This allowed for the significant improvement of nanoparticle quality and yield.

Research involved administering the resulting protein nanoparticles, with and without immune-stimulating complexes as adjuvants, to mice via intramuscular and intranasal routes. The researchers found that the novel protein nanoparticles combined with adjuvants significantly improved mucosal immune responses and the accumulation of lung resident memory cells. This led to complete protection against influenza viral infections, as stated by Dr. Wandi Zhu, the study’s first author and a research assistant professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State.

Seasonal flu epidemics and pandemics pose significant threats to public health and the economy. The seasonal flu vaccine can help reduce or prevent viral infections, but vaccine strains must align to those currently circulating, or else vaccine efficacy is significantly weakened. Additionally, producing the current quadrivalent influenza vaccine requires significant time investments, necessitating the development of new vaccine technologies that can produce a universal influenza vaccine easily. Therefore the researchers focused their work on developing different types of protein nanoparticle vaccines against both influenza A and influenza B viruses.

Dr. Baozhong Wang, senior author of the study and Distinguished University Professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State, said, “The epidemics caused by the influenza virus seriously threaten public health and the economy. Adding appropriate adjuvants to improve immunogenicity and finding effective mucosal vaccines to combat respiratory infection at the portal of virus entry are important strategies to boost protection.”

Adjuvanted protein nanoparticles could improve strong systemic and mucosal immune responses conferred by vaccines administered via different immunization routes, highlighting the importance of adding adjuvants in mucosal vaccine formulations. These adjuvanted protein nanoparticles could be utilized as mucosal vaccines alone or in combination with other vaccines to improve mucosal immunity, and Zhu called the new surface protein coating a more controlled and efficient fabrication method than the previous process. She added that the technique could be used to develop universal influenza vaccines consisting of influenza antigens from influenza A and influenza B viruses, and combining the vaccine with appropriate adjuvants will yield promising mucosal vaccine candidates.

 

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