An experimental mRNA vaccine against avian influenza virus H5N1 is highly effective in preventing severe illness and death in preclinical models. The vaccine could potentially help manage the outbreak of the H5N1 virus currently circulating in birds and cattle in the United States, and prevent human infections with the virus, according to research published in Nature Communications.
The mRNA vaccine targets a specific subtype of the H5N1 virus that is circulating widely in birds and cattle. While it rarely infects humans, some fear that the virus may evolve and cause a human pandemic. The researchers found that the vaccine elicited a strong antibody and T cell response in mice and ferrets. What’s more, the animals maintained high levels of antibodies even a year after vaccination.
Vaccinated animals who were subsequently infected with H5N1 cleared the virus more rapidly and displayed fewer symptoms than unvaccinated controls. The researchers also note that all of the vaccinated animals survived following H5N1 infection, whereas all the unvaccinated animals died.
“The mRNA technology allows us to be much more agile in developing vaccines; we can start creating a mRNA vaccine within hours of sequencing a new viral strain with pandemic potential,” said Scott Hensley, PhD, a professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine. “During previous influenza pandemics, like the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, vaccines were difficult to manufacture and did not become available until after the initial pandemic waves subsided.”
The researchers note that it will be important to evaluate the vaccine in birds and other animals that could potentially serve as an intermediate host to humans, such as swine and cattle.
This research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Adapted from Penn Medicine News