Chimeric virus-like particles (VLPs) displaying H1, H3 and H5 haemagglutinins - construction and immunogenicity

Funded Activity Summary

Virus-like particles (VLPs) provoke strong immune responses in the body. We have developed a novel VLP system that allows the production of VLPs containing foreign vaccine antigens of much larger size than previously possible, and have shown that these VLPs provoke strong immune responses in mice without the use of adjuvants. The capacity of these VLPs is large enough to accommodate the most important vaccine antigen of influenza, the haemagglutinin (HA) molecule. We will test whether VLPs can be produced containing each of the three most important HA types _ H1 and H3 that are currently circulating in man, and H5 (avian) that is considered a pandemic threat. VLPs will be tested for their ability to induce neutralizing antibody and cellular immune responses in mice, and for their ability to protect ferrets from influenza infection. If successful, the HA-VLP system would provide a method for the rapid production of new influenza vaccines using large-scale fermentation technology as for hepatitis B and many other vaccines, rather than eggs or cell culture as used for current influenza vaccines.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2006

End Date: 01-01-2007

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Strategic Awards

Funding Amount: $207,543.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Development of vaccine strategies for respiratory | Influenza | Vaccine development | Vaccine deveopment | Virus-like particle

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