CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Influenza is one of the most important respiratory pathogens worldwide. Vaccination is the best way to control the Influenza. Non-replicating baculovirus-mediated gene transfer into mammalian cells has been used as a vaccine strategy against a number of diseases. The use of Influenza A virus nucleoprotein (NP) as a vaccine antigen, stems from the fact that NP show less antigenic variation than the influenza virus surface glycoproteins, haemagglutinin and neuraminidase. The object of this work is to describe the production and immunogenicity of a BacMam vaccine encoding the NP of Influenza A virus, under the control of the cytomegalovirus immediate-early promoter. Method: Homologous prime and boost intramuscular vaccination, of BALB/c mice, with 8x108 PFU of the recombinant baculovirus were administered 3 weeks apart. Serum samples were collected to test the title of NP-specific IgG levels by ELISA. Culture supernatants of spleen cells were collected after 48 h of antigen stimulation and tested for the presence of IFN-g by antigen-capture ELISA. Result: Intramuscular injection of BacMam-NP into BALB/c mice elicited both humoral and cellular immune responses. Animals injected with BacMam-NP developed NP-specific antibodies, with high titers of IgG anti-NP. In addition, the BacMam vaccine elicited a T-cell-proliferative response and also induced the production of gamma interferon, upon restimulation with recombinant NP, suggesting the induction of a typical T helper 1 immune response in mice. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the BacMam-NP virus vector can efficiently express the NP in vivo and induce immune response against influenza virus. This is a first step to demonstrate that this baculovirus can be a potential non-replicating vaccine delivery against influenza infection.