The ectodomain of influenza matrix protein 2 (M2e) may be an ideal candidate in the development of influenza universal vaccine due to its highly conserved property among different subtypes/strains of influenza virus. M2e based vaccines have been extensively studied and potent cross-subtype/strain protections have been reported. However, more and more M2e mutants of influenza virus have been identified in recent years. It is still unclear whether M2e based vaccines are effective against these M2e mutants of influenza virus.
This study first evaluated cross-protection of an M2e tetrameric peptide vaccine based on H5N1 virus strain A/Vietnam/1194/04 (VN/1194-M2e) against lethal challenges of M2e mutants of H5N1 virus strain A/Hong Kong/156/97 (HK/156) and a novel H7N9 virus, because there are 3 or 5 amino acid differences between VN/1194-M2e and HK/156-M2e or VN/1194-M2e and H7N9-M2e. The results showed that the vaccination of VN/1194-M2e did not induce high level of cross-reactive antibodies against HK/156-M2e and just provided poor cross-protection against lethal challenge of HK/156 virus. In contrast, VN/1194-M2e vaccination induced high level of cross-reactive antibodies against H7N9-M2e. Consistently, the vaccination provided good cross-protection against lethal challenge of H7N9 virus. These results strongly suggested that some mutations in M2e, such as mutations at positions 10, 14 and 16 which found in HK/156 M2e, might affect the M2e vaccine efficacy, but some others, such as five mutations found in H7N9-M2e, might not be critical for the M2e immunogenicity.
This study then investigated the relationship between the M2e immunogenicity and amino acid mutations of the M2e. Beside VN/1194-M2e (P0), we synthesized additional 10 M2e mutant peptides which contain different single or multiple mutations. The 3D structures of these M2e peptides were predicted and analyzed. The prediction results showed that group 1 peptides (P0, P10, P14, P16, P18, P20 and P18-20) exhibited either irregular structures or loose hairpin structures which might associate with well exposure of antigenic epitope, whereas group 2 peptides (P10-14, P10-16, P14-16 and P10-14-16) formed tight hairpin structures in which antigenic epitope might bury inside their own secondary structure. Vaccination efficacies of these M2e peptides were evaluated in mice for antibody responses and cross-protection against lethal challenge of VN/1194 and HK/156 viruses. Our results showed that vaccinations of group 1 peptides induced high levels of cross-reactive antibodies against VN/1194-M2e and good cross-protection against lethal challenge of VN/1194 virus. However, vaccinations of group 2 peptides vaccinations induced significantly lower VN/1194-M2e antibody responses and poor cross-protection against lethal challenge of VN/119 virus. Furthermore, both group 1 and group 2 peptides could just induce low levels of cross-reactive antibodies against HK/156-M2e and poor protection against lethal challenge of HK/156 virus.
Although H5N1-M2e tetrameric peptide has been previously shown to protect mice from lethal challenges by different subtypes/strains of influenza virus, this study has shown that certain amino acid variations in M2e could weaken M2e immunogenicity but some others might not. The different secondary structures of M2es may probably associate with their immunogenicity. Our findings have provided valuable information for the development of M2e based universal vaccines. / published_or_final_version / Microbiology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/208568 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Leung, Ho-chuen, 梁浩銓 |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Rights | Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License, The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works. |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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