Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us?
ABSTRACT The current situation with H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) is causing a worldwide concern due to multiple outbreaks in wild birds, poultry, and mammals. Moreover, multiple zoonotic infections in humans have been reported. Importantly, HPAI H5N1 viruses with genetic marke...
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American Society for Microbiology
2025-02-01
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| Series: | mBio |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.03721-24 |
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| author | Iván Sanz-Muñoz Javier Sánchez-Martínez Carla Rodríguez-Crespo Corina S. Concha-Santos Marta Hernández Silvia Rojo-Rello Marta Domínguez-Gil Ahmed Mostafa Luis Martinez-Sobrido Jose M. Eiros Aitor Nogales |
| author_facet | Iván Sanz-Muñoz Javier Sánchez-Martínez Carla Rodríguez-Crespo Corina S. Concha-Santos Marta Hernández Silvia Rojo-Rello Marta Domínguez-Gil Ahmed Mostafa Luis Martinez-Sobrido Jose M. Eiros Aitor Nogales |
| author_sort | Iván Sanz-Muñoz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT The current situation with H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) is causing a worldwide concern due to multiple outbreaks in wild birds, poultry, and mammals. Moreover, multiple zoonotic infections in humans have been reported. Importantly, HPAI H5N1 viruses with genetic markers of adaptation to mammals have been detected. Together with HPAI H5N1, avian influenza viruses H7N9 (high and low pathogenic) stand out due to their high mortality rates in humans. This raises the question of how prepared we are serologically and whether seasonal vaccines are capable of inducing protective immunity against these influenza subtypes. An observational study was conducted in which sera from people born between years 1925–1967, 1968–1977, and 1978–1997 were collected before or after 28 days or 6 months post-vaccination with an inactivated seasonal influenza vaccine. Then, hemagglutination inhibition, viral neutralization, and immunoassays were performed to assess the basal protective immunity of the population as well as the ability of seasonal influenza vaccines to induce protective responses. Our results indicate that subtype-specific serological protection against H5N1 and H7N9 in the representative Spanish population evaluated was limited or nonexistent. However, seasonal vaccination was able to increase the antibody titers to protective levels in a moderate percentage of people, probably due to cross-reactive responses. These findings demonstrate the importance of vaccination and suggest that seasonal influenza vaccines could be used as a first line of defense against an eventual pandemic caused by avian influenza viruses, to be followed immediately by the use of more specific pandemic vaccines.IMPORTANCEInfluenza A viruses (IAV) can infect and replicate in multiple mammalian and avian species. Avian influenza virus (AIV) is a highly contagious viral disease that occurs primarily in poultry and wild water birds. Due to the lack of population immunity in humans and ongoing evolution of AIV, there is a continuing risk that new IAV could emerge and rapidly spread worldwide, causing a pandemic, if the ability to transmit efficiently among humans was gained. The aim of this study is to analyze the basal protection and presence of antibodies against IAV H5N1 and H7N9 subtypes in the population from different ages. Moreover, we have evaluated the humoral response after immunization with a seasonal influenza vaccine. This study is strategically important to evaluate the level of population immunity that is a major factor when assessing the impact that an emerging IAV strain would have, and the role of seasonal vaccines to mitigate the effects of a pandemic. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-96cd501d8bd94f75a09d89cf538a80f2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2150-7511 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | mBio |
| spelling | doaj-art-96cd501d8bd94f75a09d89cf538a80f22025-02-05T14:00:48ZengAmerican Society for MicrobiologymBio2150-75112025-02-0116210.1128/mbio.03721-24Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us?Iván Sanz-Muñoz0Javier Sánchez-Martínez1Carla Rodríguez-Crespo2Corina S. Concha-Santos3Marta Hernández4Silvia Rojo-Rello5Marta Domínguez-Gil6Ahmed Mostafa7Luis Martinez-Sobrido8Jose M. Eiros9Aitor Nogales10National Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainNational Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainNational Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainCenter for Animal Health Research, CISA-INIA-CSIC, Madrid, SpainNational Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainNational Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainNational Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainTexas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USATexas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USANational Influenza Centre, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valladolid, Valladolid, SpainCenter for Animal Health Research, CISA-INIA-CSIC, Madrid, SpainABSTRACT The current situation with H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) is causing a worldwide concern due to multiple outbreaks in wild birds, poultry, and mammals. Moreover, multiple zoonotic infections in humans have been reported. Importantly, HPAI H5N1 viruses with genetic markers of adaptation to mammals have been detected. Together with HPAI H5N1, avian influenza viruses H7N9 (high and low pathogenic) stand out due to their high mortality rates in humans. This raises the question of how prepared we are serologically and whether seasonal vaccines are capable of inducing protective immunity against these influenza subtypes. An observational study was conducted in which sera from people born between years 1925–1967, 1968–1977, and 1978–1997 were collected before or after 28 days or 6 months post-vaccination with an inactivated seasonal influenza vaccine. Then, hemagglutination inhibition, viral neutralization, and immunoassays were performed to assess the basal protective immunity of the population as well as the ability of seasonal influenza vaccines to induce protective responses. Our results indicate that subtype-specific serological protection against H5N1 and H7N9 in the representative Spanish population evaluated was limited or nonexistent. However, seasonal vaccination was able to increase the antibody titers to protective levels in a moderate percentage of people, probably due to cross-reactive responses. These findings demonstrate the importance of vaccination and suggest that seasonal influenza vaccines could be used as a first line of defense against an eventual pandemic caused by avian influenza viruses, to be followed immediately by the use of more specific pandemic vaccines.IMPORTANCEInfluenza A viruses (IAV) can infect and replicate in multiple mammalian and avian species. Avian influenza virus (AIV) is a highly contagious viral disease that occurs primarily in poultry and wild water birds. Due to the lack of population immunity in humans and ongoing evolution of AIV, there is a continuing risk that new IAV could emerge and rapidly spread worldwide, causing a pandemic, if the ability to transmit efficiently among humans was gained. The aim of this study is to analyze the basal protection and presence of antibodies against IAV H5N1 and H7N9 subtypes in the population from different ages. Moreover, we have evaluated the humoral response after immunization with a seasonal influenza vaccine. This study is strategically important to evaluate the level of population immunity that is a major factor when assessing the impact that an emerging IAV strain would have, and the role of seasonal vaccines to mitigate the effects of a pandemic.https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.03721-24influenza A virusavian influenzainfluenza vaccinepandemicnanoluciferaseseroprotection |
| spellingShingle | Iván Sanz-Muñoz Javier Sánchez-Martínez Carla Rodríguez-Crespo Corina S. Concha-Santos Marta Hernández Silvia Rojo-Rello Marta Domínguez-Gil Ahmed Mostafa Luis Martinez-Sobrido Jose M. Eiros Aitor Nogales Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us? mBio influenza A virus avian influenza influenza vaccine pandemic nanoluciferase seroprotection |
| title | Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us? |
| title_full | Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us? |
| title_fullStr | Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us? |
| title_short | Are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us? |
| title_sort | are we serologically prepared against an avian influenza pandemic and could seasonal flu vaccines help us |
| topic | influenza A virus avian influenza influenza vaccine pandemic nanoluciferase seroprotection |
| url | https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.03721-24 |
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