title: Perspectives on replication-incompetent nasal influenza virus vaccines.
abstract: Influenza is an emerging as well as resurging contagious disease with a worldwide impact on public health. Although broad administration of the licensed influenza virus (IFV) vaccines has mitigated the disease in many countries over the years, there are intrinsic problems associated with them. The study under evaluation reports that a novel PB2-knockout nonreplicating nasal IFV vaccine has been generated with the capacity to confer protection of mice against live IFV challenges. Moreover, an exogenous gene expressed from the bioengineered PB2-knockout IFV could elicit an immune response against the exogenous protein, showing its potential to deliver transgenes as a vector. The risk-benefit ratio of this new influenza vaccine vector is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Vaxin Inc., 1163 Riverchase Parkway West, Birmingham, AL 35244, USA. dechutang@gmail.com
authors.forename: De-chu C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Tang