Sat, May 24, 2025
Department of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, Pasteur Institute of Iran, 69 Pasteur Ave., Tehran 1316943551, Iran.
Abstract: (117 Views)
Introduction: Influenza A (H1N1) virus is one of the main causes of seasonal and pandemic influenza in humans. Considering the inherent antigenic changes of the virus, new infectious strains of the virus emerge frequently. In addition, the current methods of vaccine production are mainly based on fully inactivated viruses, which are time-consuming and expensive approaches. In this regard, the development of new protective vaccines will be a reasonable approach. This study aimed to design and express a subunit vaccine based on the hemagglutinin protein of the pH1N1 strain, enriched with protective epitopes of four highly pathogenic virus strains, namely, H1N1, H3N2, H5N1, and H7N9. Methods: Using bioinformatics tools, highly antigenic and conserved epitopes were selected from H1N1, H3N2, H5N1, H7N9 strains and placed at the appropriate positions on HA protein framework of pH1N1 influenza virus. The in silico analyses including immunogenicity, conservancy and population coverage were used to examine the construct, named as Hemag98. The genes sequence was synthesized and transferred to an Escherichia coli host for expression. The expression of Hemag98 protein was then confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting techniques. The immunogenicity of the purified recombinant proteins was preliminary examined in a mouse model. Results: Based on the predicted results, Hemag98 was shown to be a stable and hydrophilic protein with similar tertiary structure to native HA1 of H1N1 virus. Based on the Z-score of the predicted models, the Hemag98 model was in range of X-ray structured proteins. The expressed protein had the expected 45 KDa molecular weight and the initial in vivo experiment showed that the recombinant Hemag98 protein stimulates specific immune responses. Conclusion: The overall results indicated that the Hemag98 can be considered as a promising platform for the development of a preventive influenza vaccine capable of protecting against diverse strains of influenza virus.
Type of Study: Original article |
Subject:
Vaccine production and manufacturing
Received: 2025/05/17
Received: 2025/05/17
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.