Publication date: Nov 21, 2024
Influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2 are currently cocirculating with similar seasonality, and both pathogens are characterized by a high mutational rate which results in reduced vaccine effectiveness and thus requires regular updating of vaccine compositions. Vaccine formulations combining seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 strains can be considered promising and cost-effective tools for protection against both infections. We used a licensed seasonal trivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (3cD7LAIV) as a basis for the development of a modified 3cD7LAIV/CoV-2 vaccine, where H1N1 and H3N2 LAIV strains encoded an immunogenic cassette enriched with conserved T-cell epitopes of SARS-CoV-2, whereas a B/Victoria lineage LAIV strain was unmodified. The trivalent LAIV/CoV-2 composition was compared to the classical 3cD7LAIV in the golden Syrian hamster model. Animals were intranasally immunized with the mixtures of the vaccine viruses, twice, with a 3-week interval. Immunogenicity was assessed on day 42 of the study, and the protective effect was established by infecting vaccinated hamsters with either influenza H1N1, H3N2 or B viruses or with SARS-CoV-2 strains of the Wuhan, Delta and Omicron lineages. Both the classical 3cD7LAIV and 3cD7LAIV/CoV-2 vaccine compositions induced similar levels of serum antibodies specific to all three influenza strains, which resulted in comparable levels of protection against challenge from either influenza strain. Protection against SARS-CoV-2 challenge was more pronounced in the 3cD7LAIV/CoV-2-immunized hamsters compared to the classical 3cD7LAIV group. These data were accompanied by the higher magnitude of virus-specific cellular responses detected by ELISPOT in the modified trivalent LAIV group. The modified trivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine encoding the T-cell epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 can be considered a promising tool for combined protection against seasonal influenza and COVID-19.
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| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Classical | bivalent vaccine |
| H3n2 | influenza virus |
| Hamsters | LAIV |
| Vaccine | preclinical research |
| Week | SARS-CoV-2 |
| Syrian hamster |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | Influenza |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| disease | MESH | infections |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Coenzyme M |
| disease | IDO | cell |
| disease | IDO | site |
| disease | IDO | infection |
| disease | IDO | facility |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Pentaerythritol tetranitrate |
| disease | IDO | assay |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Formaldehyde |
| disease | IDO | protein |
| disease | IDO | blood |
| disease | MESH | organ weight |
| disease | MESH | posture |
| disease | MESH | alopecia |
| disease | MESH | viral load |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Dextrose unspecified form |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Edetic Acid |
| disease | MESH | exsanguination |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Methacholine |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Urea |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Nitrogen |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Creatinine |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Cholesterol |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Sucrose |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Flunarizine |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Water |
| disease | MESH | lung injury |
| disease | MESH | lung inflammation |
| disease | MESH | bronchitis |
| disease | MESH | necrosis |
| disease | MESH | hyperplasia |
| disease | MESH | pulmonary edema |
| disease | MESH | edema |
| disease | IDO | replication |