New Influenza Vaccine

About

HA Surface Displayed Yeast Influenza Vaccines Description: Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses pose a pandemic threat to human health. It is urgent to develop safer and more effective influenza H5 vaccines for pre-pandemic preparation. A fundamental question in pre-pandemic vaccination strategy is how to produce sufficient vaccine stocks for preventing influenza outbreaks in the shortest time. There has been development of a paradigm-shifting new influenza vaccine technology by presenting H5N1 hemagglutinin (HA) on the surface of yeast. Using A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (H5N1) virus HA as a model antigen, it has been demonstrated, for the first time, that the HA surface presented yeast can be used as vaccines to elicit both humoral and cell-mediated immunity in mice. The study revealed that the yeast surface displayed HA is N-linked glycosylated and HI titers can reach close to 128 in vaccinated mice. A high level production of H5N1 HA specific IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies was detected after boost-immunization. Intramuscular immunization of mice with the yeast influenza vaccines offers complete protection from lethal H5N1 virus challenge. No severe adverse effect of yeast vaccines was noted in animal tests. This new technology allows for rapid and massive production of much safer influenza vaccines and overcomes the limitation of current vaccine development in large-scale production. Advantages: The vaccines can be rapidly produced at large scale to fight against influenza pandemics. The vaccines are edible and can be stored at room temperature. Potential Applications: The HA-surface presented Avian Influenza recombinant yeast vaccines can be used by all persons to prevent infection and severe outcomes caused by influenza viruses. Development Status: Conclusive results in animal testing (mice). Intellectual Property Position: Patent strategy is currently under evaluation. Keywords: Influenza Vaccine, Avian Influenza Virus, Flu Pandemics, Flu Vaccines, Yeast Vaccines Inventors: Dr. Kaiming Ye is a professor and chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Binghamton University, SUNY. His research interests focus on stem cell and regenerative medicine and 3D tissue and organ printing. He has published one book, one patent and more than 66 papers in the field. He is best known for his creative work developing 3D scaffolds for directing stem cell pancreatic differentiation, creating fluorescence nanosensors for both in vivo and in vitro continuous glucose monitoring, and formulating recombinant yeast influenza vaccines. Dr. Sha Jin is an assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Binghamton University, SUNY. Her research interests include stem cell for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, mechanobiology, molecular genetics and cell biology, nanosensor development, vaccine development. She received her Ph.D. from Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan and M.S. from East China University of Science and Technology.