Exploration of Functional Neuraminidase-Reactive Antibodies to Influenza a Virus and Their Potential Applications( I )

Influenza A cases occur throughout the year and the virus generates epidemics or seasonal outbreaks around the world. Neuraminidase (NA), one of major antigens on the surface of influenza virus, is in the formulation of current vaccines. The antibodies to NA elicited by vaccination or natural infection play a key role in the protection against influenza in the host. However, the compositions of NA-reactive antibody repertoire and the development of broadly reactive antibodies upon antigen exposure remain largely unclear in humans. Previously, we detected a potent strain-specific NA-reactive serological response to inactivated vaccine antigens in adult individuals. We also produced and characterized a set of human monoclonal antibodies to influenza A N1 and showed that some of them broadly inhibit NA activity in enzyme-linked lectin assays and are protective from lethal infection in vivo. Moreover, the preliminary data suggests that the N1 NA has been under strong evolutionary pressure from the broadly reactive human antibodies induced by the 2009 pandemic viral N1. These data leads to current proposal to establish a platform to examine the magnitude and breadth of NA-reactive human antibodies at the polyclonal and monoclonal repertoire level, to delineate the epitope basis for the potency and breadth of specificity of NA-reactive antibodies, and to explore the potential application of functional NA-reactive monoclonal antibody in the experimental assay in Taiwan.

Project ID:PC10907-3059
External Project ID:MOST109-2628-B182-010