Immune Netw.  2023 Aug;23(4):e32. 10.4110/in.2023.23.e32.

Vaccine Strategy That Enhances the Protective Efficacy of Systemic Immunization by Establishing LungResident Memory CD8 T Cells Against Influenza Infection

• Kong HJ
• Choi Y
• Kim EA
• Chang J

• KMID: 2549158
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4110/in.2023.23.e32

Abstract

Most influenza vaccines currently in use target the highly variable hemagglutinin protein to induce neutralizing antibodies and therefore require yearly reformulation. T cell-based universal influenza vaccines focus on eliciting broadly cross-reactive T-cell responses, especially the tissue-resident memory T cell (T_RM ) population in the respiratory tract, providing superior protection to circulating memory T cells. This study demonstrated that intramuscular (i.m.) administration of the adenovirus-based vaccine expressing influenza virus nucleoprotein (rAd/NP) elicited weak CD8 T_RM responses in the lungs and airways, and yielded poor protection against lethal influenza virus challenge. However, a novel “prime-and-deploy” strategy that combines i.m. vaccination of rAd/NP with subsequent intranasal administration of an empty adenovector induced strong NP-specific CD8⁺ T_RM cells and provided complete protection against influenza virus challenge. Overall, our results demonstrate that this “prime-and-deploy” vaccination strategy is potentially applicable to the development of universal influenza vaccines.

Keyword

Lung CD8 T_RM; Adenovirus vector; Intramuscular administration; Intranasal administration; Influenza vaccine