DeDiego ML, Chiem K, Topham DJ.. Directed selection of amino acid changes in the influenza hemagglutinin and neuraminidase affecting protein antigenicity. Vaccine. 2018 Sep 14.
Influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) proteins elicit protective antibody responses and therefore, are used as targets for vaccination, especially the HA protein. However, these proteins are subject to antigenic drift, decreasing vaccine efficacy, and few to no studies have analyzed antigenic variability of these proteins by growing the viruses under immune pressure provided by human sera. In this work, we show that after growing different influenza virus strains under immune pressure, the selection of amino acid changes in the NA protein is much more limited than the selection in the HA protein, suggesting that the NA protein could remain more conserved under immune pressure. Interestingly, all the mutations in the HA and NA proteins affected protein antigenicity, and many of the selected amino acid changes were located at the same positions found in viruses circulating. These studies could help to inform HA and NA protein residues targeted by antibody responses after virus infection in humans and are very relevant to update the strains used for influenza virus vaccination each year and to improve the currently available vaccines.
See Also:
Latest articles in those days:
- [preprint]Egyptian rousette bat humoral immunity to H9 influenza hemagglutinin 15 hours ago
- The surveillance programme for avian influenza (AI) in Norwegian wildlife 2025 1 days ago
- The surveillance programme for avian influenza (AI) in poultry in Norway 2025 1 days ago
- Emergence of Novel Reassortant H3N2 Avian Influenza Viruses in Southern China: Genetic Complexity and Pathogenicity in Chickens and Mice 1 days ago
- Pathological evidence of neurotropism and oculotropism in wild black-headed gulls naturally infected with H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza 1 days ago
[Go Top] [Close Window]


