A Recombinant Influenza A/H1N1 Carrying A Short Immunogenic Peptide of MERS-CoV as Bivalent Vaccine in BALB/c Mice

Shehata, Mahmoud M.; Kandeil, Ahmed; Mostafa, Ahmed; Mahmoud, Sara H.; Gomaa, Mokhtar R.; El-Shesheny, Rabeh; Webby, Richard; Kayali, Ghazi; A. Ali, Mohamed

The MERS-CoV and pandemic influenza H1N1 viruses are among the most important emerging infectious diseases and represent serious public health challenges. The development of an effective bivalent vaccine against influenza and MERS-CoV infections is urgently required especially in the areas where both viruses are co-circulating. Thus, designing novel strategies to prevent MERS-CoV and influenza infections is in demand. A previous study showed that aa 736-761 of the MERS-CoV spike epitope elicit robust neutralizing activities and block viral infection [15] . Herein, we developed a novel recombinant bivalent vaccine against H1N1pdm09 and MERS-CoV using rescued influenza virus carrying the short immunogenic peptide 736-761 of the S protein in the NA gene. The short peptide of MERS-CoV was inserted at position 48 aa in the NA-stalk domain of influenza A/H1N1. This unique site was selected based on the distinct natural deletion in the corresponding neuraminidase subtype (N1) of H5N1 isolates in Egypt since 2006 [16, 17] . For safety reasons, we preferred to test the NA of H1N1 instead of H5N1 as a shuttle for the MERS-CoV spike immunogenic epitope.