Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Broad protective polyvalent influenza-A DNA vaccine for pigs and humans

5^th Asia Pacific Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination

July 27-29, 2015 Brisbane, Australia

Anders Fomsgaarda,b, Marie Borggrena, Jens Nielsena, for the UNISEC Consortiumc

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

New influenza A vaccines inducing a broad cross-reactive immune response and universal protection would be of great advantage against both seasonal and emerging pandemic influenza A in humans and pigs. We have developed an alternative influenza vaccine based on DNA expressing 6 selected influenza proteins of pandemic origin (H1,N1 from 2009, H3,N2 from 1968, NP,M from 1918)1. Intradermal immunisation with electroporation induced HI antibodies >40 HAI/ml between 7-10 days after second vaccination in pigs and induced protection in ferrets and pigs against challenge with virus homologous and heterologous to the HA/NA in the DNA vaccine. Subsequently, we adapted our DNA formulation to the handheld needle-free painless IDAL (Intra Dermal Application of Liquids) device (MSD) designed for mass vaccination of pigs and obtained antibody responses comparable with those obtained by i.d. injection with electroporation when tested in the rabbit model. We further enhanced the DNA vaccine performance, GMP production yield, and safety by changing our standard 1st generation DNA vaccine vector backbones (pSSI and wrg7079) to the Kanamycin-antibiotic-free new generation vectors NTC8385 and NTC9385 (Nature Technologies)2, that used iRNA as selection marker. The improved mix of 6 plasmids delivered with IDAL device and a new DNA vaccine adjuvant induced high titres antibodies in a DNA dose-titration experiment in 8 week old pigs with a very low DNA dose. This encourage for clinical trials development of a ?universal? DNA vaccine for pigs against swine flu. Protection of pigs may even prevent pandemics in humans.