New pre-pandemic influenza vaccines: an egg- and adjuvant-independent human adenoviral vector strategy induces long-lasting protective immune responses in mice.

Hoelscher, M A; Jayashankar, L; Garg, S; Veguilla, V; Lu, X; Singh, N; Katz, J M; Mittal, S K; Sambhara, S

Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza viruses that are currently circulating in southeast Asia may acquire the potential to cause the next influenza pandemic. A number of alternate approaches are being pursued to generate cross-protective, dose-sparing, safe, and effective vaccines, as traditional vaccine approaches, i.e., embryonated egg-grown, are not immunogenic. We developed a replication-incompetent adenoviral vector-based, adjuvant- and egg-independent pandemic influenza vaccine strategy as a potential alternative to conventional egg-derived vaccines. In this paper, we address suboptimal dose and longevity of vaccine-induced protective immunity and demonstrate that a vaccine dose as little as 1 x 10(6) plaque-forming unit (PFU) is sufficient to induce protective immune responses against a highly pathogenic H5N1 virus. Furthermore, the vaccine-induced humoral and cellular immune responses and protective immunity persisted at least for a year.