Jpn. J. Infect. Dis., 53 (6), 219-228, 2000

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Review

Identification of Effective Constituents of Influenza Vaccine by Immunization with Plasmid DNAs Encoding Viral Proteins

Ze Chen, Takeshi Kurata¹ and Shin-ichi Tamura^1*

College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, People's Republic of China and ¹Department of Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan

(Received November 29, 2000. Accepted January 18, 2001)

CONTENTS: 
1. Introduction
2. Protection against influenza virus infection by immunization of
   mice with plasmid DNAs encoding various viral proteins
3. Protective effect of a mixture of plasmid DNAs encoding 
   hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) molecules
4. Cross-protection against influenza virus infection provided by 
   DNA vaccine to NA 
5. Differences between mouse strains in development of immunity 
   against the plasmid DNAs
6. Effectiveness of current inactivated HA vaccine supplemented with NA 
7. Perspectives

SUMMARY: The use of plasmid DNA encoding influenza viral proteins to vaccinate animals constitutes a promising approach to the development of effective subunit vaccines. This review describes the results obtained by the immunization of mice with such plasmid DNAs. (i) Both hemagglutinin (HA)- and neuraminidase (NA)-expressing DNAs for the surface glycoproteins from A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) or B/Ibaraki/2/85 virus can provide the most effective protection against influenza A-type or B-type virus infection among the various viral protein-expressing DNAs tested in BALB/c mice. (ii) A mixture of plasmid DNAs encoding HA and NA can provide more effective protection against virus challenge than plasmid DNA encoding HA or NA alone in BALB/c mice. (iii) NA-DNA can provide protection against infection not only by homologous virus but also by drift viruses. (iv) HA-DNA from A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) virus provides significant protection only in BALB/c (H-2^b) mice, whereas HA-DNA from B/Ibaraki/2/85 virus affords significant protection in BALB/c, B10 (H-2^d), and C3H (H-2^k) mice. NA-DNA from both A-type and B-type viruses provides significant protection in the three strains of mice. These results suggest that both HA and NA molecules should be used as vaccine components to provide effective protection against influenza A-type and B-type virus infection in genetically heterogeneous humans.

* Corresponding author: Tel: +81-3-5285-1111, Fax: +81-3-5285-1189, E-mail: stamura@nih.go.jp

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