title: Influenza vaccines: a moving interdisciplinary field.
abstract: Vaccination is by far the most effective way of preventing morbidity and mortality due to infection of the upper respiratory tract by influenza virus. Current vaccines require yearly vaccine updates as the influenza virus can escape vaccine-induced humoral immunity due to the antigenic variability of its surface antigens. In case of a pandemic, new vaccines become available too late with current vaccine practices. New technologies that allow faster production of vaccine seed strains in combination with alternative production platforms and vaccine formulations may shorten the time gap between emergence of a new influenza virus and a vaccine becoming available. Adjuvants may allow antigen-sparing, allowing more people to be vaccinated with current vaccine production capacity. Adjuvants and universal vaccines can target immune responses to more conserved influenza epitopes, which eventually will result in broader protection for a longer time. In addition, further immunological studies are needed to gain insights in the immune features that contribute to protection from influenza-related disease and mortality, allowing redefinition of correlates of protection beyond virus neutralization in vitro.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1468 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029, USA. Michael.Schotsaert@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schotsaert
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1468 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10029, USA. Adolfo.Garcia-Sastre@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: Adolfo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: García-Sastre
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D006801:Humans; D056724:Immunity, Humoral; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000821:virology; D009975:Orthomyxoviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D058873:Pandemics; D014611:Vaccination; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D014614:Vaccines, Synthetic