Antibody Persistence in Adults Two Years after Vaccination with an H1N1 2009 Pandemic Influenza Virus-Like Particle Vaccine

PLoS One. 2016 Feb 26;11(2):e0150146. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150146. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The influenza virus is a human pathogen that causes epidemics every year, as well as potential pandemic outbreaks, as occurred in 2009. Vaccination has proven to be sufficient in the prevention and containment of viral spreading. In addition to the current egg-based vaccines, new and promising vaccine platforms, such as cell culture-derived vaccines that include virus-like particles (VLPs), have been developed. VLPs have been shown to be both safe and immunogenic against influenza infections. Although antibody persistence has been studied in traditional egg-based influenza vaccines, studies on antibody response durations induced by VLP influenza vaccines in humans are scarce. Here, we show that subjects vaccinated with an insect cell-derived VLP vaccine, in the midst of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic outbreak in Mexico City, showed antibody persistence up to 24 months post-vaccination. Additionally, we found that subjects that reported being revaccinated with a subsequent inactivated influenza virus vaccine showed higher antibody titres to the pandemic influenza virus than those who were not revaccinated. These findings provide insights into the duration of the antibody responses elicited by an insect cell-derived pandemic influenza VLP vaccine and the possible effects of subsequent influenza vaccination on antibody persistence induced by this VLP vaccine in humans.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial, Phase II
  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Antibodies, Viral / blood*
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Double-Blind Method
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunization, Secondary
  • Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / immunology*
  • Influenza Vaccines / immunology*
  • Influenza, Human / epidemiology
  • Influenza, Human / virology
  • Male
  • Mexico / epidemiology
  • Middle Aged
  • Pandemics
  • Seroepidemiologic Studies
  • Time Factors
  • Vaccination*
  • Vaccines, Inactivated
  • Vaccines, Virus-Like Particle / immunology*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Influenza Vaccines
  • Vaccines, Inactivated
  • Vaccines, Virus-Like Particle

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) through the IMSS Fondo de Investigación en Salud projects as follows: FIS/IMSS/PROT/G12/1152 and FIS/IMSS/PROT/PRIO/11/013 awarded to CLM. Funding was also provided by the Mexican National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT), project number CB166946-2011, awarded to RPP. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.