Neuraminidase-inhibiting antibody is a correlate of cross-protection against lethal H5N1 influenza virus in ferrets immunized with seasonal influenza vaccine.

In preparing for the threat of a pandemic of avian H5N1 influenza virus, we need to consider the significant delay (4 to 6 months) necessary to produce a strain-matched vaccine. As some degree of cross-reactivity between seasonal influenza vaccines and H5N1 virus has been reported, this was further explored in the ferret model to determine the targets of protective immunity. Ferrets were vaccinated with two intramuscular inoculations of trivalent inactivated split influenza vaccine or subcomponent vaccines, with and without adjuvant, and later challenged with a lethal dose of A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (H5N1) influenza virus. We confirmed that vaccination with seasonal influenza vaccine afforded partial protection against lethal H5N1 challenge and showed that use of either AlPO(4) or Iscomatrix adjuvant with the vaccine resulted in complete protection against disease and death. The protection was due exclusively to the H1N1 vaccine component, and although the hemagglutinin contributed to protection, the dominant protective response was targeted toward the neuraminidase (NA) and correlated with sialic acid cleavage-inhibiting antibody titers. Purified heterologous NA formulated with Iscomatrix adjuvant was also protective. These results suggest that adjuvanted seasonal trivalent vaccine could be used as an interim measure to decrease morbidity and mortality from H5N1 prior to the availability of a specific vaccine. The data also highlight that an inducer of cross-protective immunity is the NA, a protein whose levels are not normally monitored in vaccines and whose capacity to induce immunity in recipients is not normally assessed.

A neutralizing human monoclonal antibody protects against lethal disease in a new ferret model of acute nipah virus infection.

Nipah virus is a broadly tropic and highly pathogenic zoonotic paramyxovirus in the genus Henipavirus whose natural reservoirs are several species of Pteropus fruit bats. Nipah virus has repeatedly caused outbreaks over the past decade associated with a severe and often fatal disease in humans and animals. Here, a new ferret model of Nipah virus pathogenesis is described where both respiratory and neurological disease are present in infected animals. Severe disease occurs with viral doses as low as 500 TCID(50) within 6 to 10 days following infection. The underlying pathology seen in the ferret closely resembles that seen in Nipah virus infected humans, characterized as a widespread multisystemic vasculitis, with virus replicating in highly vascular tissues including lung, spleen and brain, with recoverable virus from a variety of tissues. Using this ferret model a cross-reactive neutralizing human monoclonal antibody, m102.4, targeting the henipavirus G glycoprotein was evaluated in vivo as a potential therapeutic agent. All ferrets that received m102.4 ten hours following a high dose oral-nasal Nipah virus challenge were protected from disease while all controls died. This study is the first successful post-exposure passive antibody therapy for Nipah virus using a human monoclonal antibody.

Infection studies with two highly pathogenic avian influenza strains (Vietnamese and Indonesian) in Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), with particular reference to clinical disease, tissue tropism and viral shedding.

Pekin ducks were infected by the mucosal route (oral, nasal, ocular) with one of two strains of Eurasian lineage H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus: A/Muscovy duck/Vietnam/453/2004 and A/duck/Indramayu/BBVW/109/2006 (from Indonesia). Ducks were killed humanely on days 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 after challenge, or whenever morbidity was severe enough to justify euthanasia. Morbidity was recorded by observation of clinical signs and cloacal temperatures; the disease was characterized by histopathology; tissue tropism was studied by immunohistochemistry and virus titration on tissue samples; and viral shedding patterns were determined by virus isolation and titration of oral and cloacal swabs. The Vietnamese strain caused severe morbidity with fever and depression; the Indonesian strain caused only transient fever. Both viruses had a predilection for a similar range of tissue types, but the quantity of tissue antigen and tissue virus titres were considerably higher with the Vietnamese strain. The Vietnamese strain caused severe myocarditis and skeletal myositis; both strains caused non-suppurative encephalitis and a range of other inflammatory reactions of varying severity. The principal epithelial tissue infected was that of the air sacs, but antigen was not abundant. Epithelium of the turbinates, trachea and bronchi had only rare infection with virus. Virus was shed from both the oral and cloacal routes; it was first detected 24 h after challenge and persisted until day 5 after challenge. The higher prevalence of virus from swabs from ducks infected with the Vietnamese strain indicates that this strain may be more adapted to ducks than the Indonesia strain.

Evaluation of vaccines for H5N1 influenza virus in ferrets reveals the potential for protective single-shot immunization.

As part of influenza pandemic preparedness, policy decisions need to be made about how best to utilize vaccines once they are manufactured. Since H5N1 avian influenza virus has the potential to initiate the next human pandemic, isolates of this subtype have been used for the production and testing of prepandemic vaccines. Clinical trials of such vaccines indicate that two injections of preparations containing adjuvant will be required to induce protective immunity. However, this is a working assumption based on classical serological measures only. Examined here are the dose of viral hemagglutinin (HA) and the number of inoculations required for two different H5N1 vaccines to achieve protection in ferrets after lethal H5N1 challenge. Ferrets inoculated twice with 30 microg of A/Vietnam/1194/2004 HA vaccine with AlPO4, or with doses as low as 3.8 microg of HA with Iscomatrix (ISCOMATRIX, referred to as Iscomatrix herein, is a registered trademark of CSL Limited) adjuvant, were completely protected against death and disease after H5N1 challenge, and the protection lasted at least 15 months. Cross-clade protection was also observed with both vaccines. Significantly, complete protection against death could be achieved with only a single inoculation of H5N1 vaccine containing as little as 15 microg of HA with AlPO4 or 3.8 microg of HA with Iscomatrix adjuvant. Ferrets vaccinated with the single-injection Iscomatrix vaccines showed fewer clinical manifestations of infection than those given AlPO4 vaccines and remained highly active. Our data provide the first indication that in the event of a future influenza pandemic, effective mass vaccination may be achievable with a low-dose "single-shot" vaccine and provide not only increased survival but also significant reduction in disease severity.

Real-time RT-PCR for detection of equine influenza and evaluation using samples from horses infected with A/equine/Sydney/2007 (H3N8).

Equine influenza (EI) virus (H3N8) was identified in the Australian horse population for the first time in August 2007. The principal molecular diagnostic tool used for detection was a TaqMan real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) assay specific for the matrix (MA) gene of influenza virus type A (IVA). As this assay is not specific for EI, we developed a new EI H3-specific TaqMan assay targeting the haemagglutinin (HA) gene of all recent EI H3 strains. The IVA and the EI H3 TaqMan assays were assessed using in vitro transcribed RNA template, virus culture, diagnostic samples from the outbreak and samples from experimentally infected horses. The EI H3 TaqMan assay had a higher diagnostic sensitivity (DSe) when compared to the IVA TaqMan assay and also when using a conventional PCR for EI H3 as a standard of comparison. The performance of both TaqMan assays was compared with an antigen detection ELISA and virus isolation using nasal swabs collected daily from horses experimentally infected with the outbreak strain A/equine/Sydney/2888-8/2007. The EI H3 TaqMan assay was the most sensitive of the assays, able to detect EI from day 1 or 2 post-challenge, as early as virus isolation, and before clinical signs of disease were observed.