ABSTRACT
The constant outbreaks of influenza in a global scale have aroused great concern all over the world. Vaccine has been the most effective and economic means against influenza. However, the broad tropism and high mutation of influenza viruses have limited the effectiveness of influenza vaccines. Current influenza virus vaccines provide effective protection against virus strains that are identical or highly similar to the vaccine strain. Once a highly mutated or new strain of influenza virus appears, the current vaccine would lose its effectiveness. Therefore, the development of a universal vaccine against highly mutated or new influenza virus subtypes has become a hot spot in the field of influenza vaccine research. The major methods of developing the universal influenza vaccine are to select a conserved protein of influenza virus as an antigen. At least three universal influenza vaccines have been tested in clinical trials. Moreover, changing the routes of vaccine immunization and immunization schemes could also improve the effect of heterosubtypic immunity. This review summarized the research progresses of universal influenza vaccines and provided our prospective on universal influenza vaccine research.