Prior infection with influenza virus but not vaccination leaves a long-term immunological imprint that intensifies the protective efficacy of antigenically drifted vaccine strains

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jin Hyang Kim, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Justine Liepkalns, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Adrian J. Reber, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Xiuhua Lu, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Nedzad Music, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Joshy Jacob, Emory University; Suryaprakash Sambhara, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Language: English
• Date: 2016-01-20
• Publisher: Elsevier: 12 months
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2015.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.11.077
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Vaccine
• ISSN: 0264-410X
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 495
• End Page: 502
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by contract HHSN266 200700006C from NIH/NIAID.; Joshy Jacob is a research scholar of the American Cancer Society.
• Keywords: Infection; Research & Experimental Medicine; Antigenic drift; Pandemic H1N1; Science & Technology; Influenza virus; Immunology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Vaccine efficacy
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Immunology; Biology, Virology

Abstract

The role of pre-existing immunity for influenza vaccine responses is of great importance for public health, and thus has been studied in various contexts, yet the impact of differential priming on vaccine responses in the midst of antigenic drift remains to be elucidated. To address this with antigenically related viruses, mice were first primed by either infection or immunization with A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (PR8) virus, then immunized with whole-inactivated A/Fort Monmouth/1/47 (FM1) virus. The ensuing vaccine responses and the protective efficacy of FM1 were superior in PR8 infection-primed mice compared to PR8 immunization-primed or unprimed mice. Increased FM1-specific Ab responses of PR8 infection-primed mice also broadened cross-reactivity against contemporary as well as antigenically more drifted strains. Further, prior infection heightened the protective efficacy of antigenically distant strains, such as A/Brisbane/59/2006 infection followed by immunization with split pandemic H1N1 vaccine (A/California/07/2009). Therefore, influenza infection is a significant priming event that intensifies future vaccine responses against drift strains.