Influenza B vaccine lineage selection--an optimized trivalent vaccine

In: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/253813

Abstract

Epidemics of seasonal influenza viruses cause considerable morbidity and mortality each year. Various types and subtypes of influenza circulate in humans and evolve continuously such that individuals at risk of serious complications need to be vaccinated annually to keep protection up to date with circulating viruses. The influenza vaccine in most parts of the world is a trivalent vaccine, including an antigenically representative virus of recently circulating influenza A/H3N2, A/H1N1, and influenza B viruses. However, since the 1970s influenza B has split into two antigenically distinct lineages, only one of which is represented in the annual trivalent vaccine at any time. We describe a lineage selection strategy that optimizes protection against influenza B using the standard trivalent vaccine as a potentially cost effective alternative to quadrivalent vaccines. ; Sera used in this research were kindly provided by the following collaborators: for Australia by Dr. Ian Barr, WHO Collaborating Center, Melbourne, Australia, pediatric sera for the United States by Dr. Jackie Katz, WHO Collaborating Center, Atlanta, US, for Japan by Dr. Takato Odagiri, WHO Collaborating Center, Tokyo, Japan, for China by Dr. Yuelong Shu, WHO Collaborating Center, Beijing, China, for the United Kingdom by Dr. John Wood, NIBSC, Hertfordshire, UK. Additional thanks to Drs Nancy Cox, Michael Shaw, and Alexander Klimov. This work was supported by European Union FP7 program EMPERIE (22349). JMF is supported by a Fellowship in Biomedical Informatics from the Medical Research Council (UK) and a Junior Research Fellowship from Homerton College, Cambridge. Funded by: ERCPMC grant number: FP7 22349. ; This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.01.042