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A DNA vaccine expressing PB1 protein of influenza A virus protects mice against virus infection

Archives of Virology volume 157, pages 811–817 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Although influenza DNA vaccine research has focused mainly on viral hemagglutinin and has led to promising results, other virion proteins have also shown some protective potential. In this work, we explored the potential of a DNA vaccine based on the PB1 protein to protect BALB/c mice against lethal influenza A virus infection. The DNA vaccine consisted of pTriEx4 plasmid expressing PB1. As a positive control, a pTriEx4 plasmid expressing influenza A virus HA was used. Two weeks after three subcutaneous doses of DNA vaccine, the mice were challenged intranasally with 1 LD50 of A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (H1N1) virus, and PB1- and HA-specific antibodies, survival rate, body weight change, viral mRNA load, infectious virus titer in the lungs, cytokines IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10, and granzyme-B were measured. The results showed that (i) the PB1-expressing DNA vaccine provided a fair protective immunity in the mouse model and (ii) viral structural proteins such as PB1 represent promising antigens for DNA vaccination against influenza A.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants 2/0175/09 and 2/0085/10 from the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences, and no. APVV-0250-10 from the Slovak Research and Development Agency. The authors thank Margita Mišovičová for her excellent technical assistance.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Affiliations

  1. Institute of Virology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, 845 05, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Ivan Košík, Ingrid Krejnusová, Margaréta Práznovská & Gustáv Russ

  2. Cancer Research Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Vlárska 7, 833 91, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Katarína Poláková

Authors
  1. Ivan Košík
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  2. Ingrid Krejnusová
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  3. Margaréta Práznovská
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  4. Katarína Poláková
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  5. Gustáv Russ
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Correspondence to Ivan Košík.

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Košík, I., Krejnusová, I., Práznovská, M. et al. A DNA vaccine expressing PB1 protein of influenza A virus protects mice against virus infection. Arch Virol 157, 811–817 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1238-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-012-1238-6

Keywords

  • Influenza
  • Influenza Vaccine
  • Influenza Virus Infection
  • Allantoic Fluid
  • Mouse Lung Homogenate