BACKGROUND Intranasal delivery of vaccines directed against respiratory pathogens is an attractive alternative to parenteral administration. However, using this delivery route for inactivated vaccines usually requires the use of potent mucosal adjuvants, and no such adjuvant has yet been approved for human use. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We have developed a live attenuated Bordetella pert...

Influenza A virus poses a major threat to human health, causing outbreaks from time to time. Currently available vaccines employ inactivated viruses of different strains to provide protection against influenza virus infection. However, high mutation rates of influenza virus hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) glycoproteins give rise to vaccine escape mutants. Thus, an effective vaccine prov...

The successful isolation of a human influenza virus in 1933 was soon followed by the first attempts to develop an influenza vaccine. Nowadays, vaccination is still the most effective method to prevent human influenza disease. However, licensed influenza vaccines offer protection against antigenically matching viruses, and the composition of these vaccines needs to be updated nearly every year. ...

Background: The use of IgYs in a variety of methods in different areas of research, diagnostics, medical application and biotechnology should be considered widely. Objectives: Development of antibodies against extra cellular domain of influenza M2 (M2e) protein in egg yolk of laying hens. Methods: A Fusion construct harboring C-terminal of bovine heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and influenza M2e ...

Effective vaccination against influenza virus infection is a serious problem mainly due to antigenic variability of the virus. Among many of investigated antigens, the extracellular domain of the M2 protein (M2e) features high homology in all strains of influenza A viruses and antibodies against M2e and is protective in animal models; this makes it a potential candidate for generation of a univ...

Human influenza viruses are responsible for annual epidemics and occasional pandemics that cause severe illness and mortality in all age groups worldwide. Matrix protein 2 (M2) of influenza A virus is a tetrameric type III membrane protein that functions as a proton-selective channel. The extracellular domain of M2 (M2e) is conserved in human and avian influenza A viruses and is being pursued a...

There is mounting evidence that in the absence of neutralizing antibodies cross-reactive T cells provide protection against pandemic influenza viruses. Here, we compared protection and CD8+ T cell responses following challenge with H1N1 2009 pandemic and H3N2 viruses of mice that had been immunized with hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA) and the extracellular domain of matrix protein 2 (M2e...

The recent emergence and rapid spread of the pandemic H1N1 swine influenza virus reminded us once again of the need for a universal influenza vaccine that can elicit heterosubtypic protection. Here, we show the superior immunogenicity and immunoprotective capacity of the full-length matrix protein 2 ectodomain (M2e) peptide coupled to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH) compared with the N-termina...

BACKGROUND The ectodomain of matrix protein 2 (M2e) is a promising candidate for a broadly protective influenza A vaccine because it is highly conserved and antibodies to M2e are protective in animal models. STF2.4xM2e (VAX102) is a recombinant fusion protein that links four tandem copies of the M2e antigen to Salmonella typhimurium flagellin, a TLR5 ligand used as an adjuvant. The objectives o...