To offer cross-protection against diverse influenza virus variants, nanoparticle vaccines can produce pivotal cellular and mucosal immune responses that enhance vaccine efficacy and broaden protection, according to a study by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications , offers valuable insights into tailoring immunization strategies to optimize influenza vaccine effectiveness. To alleviate the significant public health burden of influenza epidemics and occasional pandemics, it's essential to enhance influenza vaccine cross-protection, according to the authors.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends annual influenza vaccination, current seasonal influenza vaccines typically provide strain-specific and short-lived immunity. Seasonal influenza vaccines offer limited cross-protection against antigenically diverse virus variants and provide no defense against sporadic influenza pandemics, the authors explained. Developing effective influenza vaccines or vaccination strategies that can confer cross-protection against variant influenza viruses is a high priority to mitigate the public health consequences of influenza.
" Dr. Chunhong Dong, first author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State In the study, the researchers investigated the effects of immunization strategies on the generation of cross-protec.
