Development of a New, More Effective Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine: An Essential Platform for Future Pandemic Protection
Abstract
Vaccination is the most cost-effective approach by which the spread of a pandemic influenza virus could be prevented, and severe disease reduced. However, current influenza vaccines have had poor efficacy. Thus, it is very important to develop a new and more effective live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). We hypothesize that by understanding the molecular basis for the temperature sensitive (ts) and attenuated (att) phenotypes of LAIV, it will be possible to develop a new, more effective live-attenuated influenza vaccine that leverages LAIVs superior ability to protect against infection by diverse influenza viruses. Our goal is to develop a new and improved LAIV that has enhanced safety and efficacy, due to (1) a greater temperature sensitivity than current LAIVs, resulting in viral replication only in the lower temperatures of the nasal cavity and extreme upper airway and (2) high levels of virus gene expression but poor replication resulting in abundant protein expression (and immunogenicity) but minimal production of infectious progeny virus.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1117706
Entities
People
- Stephen Dewhurst
Organizations
- University of Rochester