Current seasonal influenza vaccines are designed to elicit immunity to circulating strains of influenza each year. The targeted strains are selected based on predictions of which strains are likely to be predominant in the human population for a given year. This prediction must be made well ahead of the influenza season to allow time for vaccine production and can be inaccurate.

Scientists at NIAID's Vaccine Research Center are developing an alternative approach for design and production of seasonal influenza vaccines. The design includes recombinant fusion proteins that self-assemble into nanoparticles with influenza antigenic proteins displayed on the nanoparticle surface (Nature 499, 102-106 (2013)). Further engineering these recombinant fusion proteins, the scientists have developed nanoparticles that simultaneously display multiple strains of influenza viral protein antigens (the receptor-binding domain of hemagglutinin) on their surface. Due to the heterogeneity of the antigenic protein derived from multiple strains, these nanoparticles are referred to as mosaic nanoparticles.

Upon immunization of mice with mosaic nanoparticles displaying antigens from eight different H1N1 strains, the elicited antibodies neutralized a panel of H1N1 strains from 1918 through 2009 including the strains that had not been displayed on the mosaic nanoparticle. However, mice immunized with a mixture of the eight types of nanoparticles, each displaying a single antigenic protein, did not elicit a similar breadth of neutralizing antibody response.

NIAID is continuing development of these vaccine candidates through animal studies and moving toward clinical evaluation.

This technology is available for licensing for commercial development in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209 and 37 CFR part 404, as well as for further development and evaluation under a research collaboration.