title: Intranasal vaccination with an engineered influenza virus expressing the receptor binding subdomain of botulinum neurotoxin provides protective immunity against botulism and influenza.
abstract: Influenza virus is a negative segmented RNA virus without DNA intermediate. This makes it safer as a vaccine delivery vector than most DNA viruses that have potential to integrate their genetic elements into host genomes. In this study, we developed a universal influenza viral vector, expressing the receptor binding subdomain of botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A). We tested the growth characters of the engineered influenza virus in chicken eggs and Madin-Darby canine kidney epithelial cells (MDCK), and showed that it can be produced to a titer of 5 × 10(6) plaque forming unites/ml in chicken eggs and MDCK cells. Subsequently, mice intranasally vaccinated with the engineered influenza virus conferred protection against challenge with lethal doses of active BoNT/A toxin and influenza virus. Our results demonstrated the feasibility to develop a dual purpose nasal vaccine against both botulism and influenza.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center , El Paso, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Junwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center , El Paso, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Diaz-Arévalo
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center , El Paso, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Yanping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases, Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center , El Paso, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Mingtao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeng
keywords: botulinum neurotoxin; influenza; intranasal vaccination; protective immunity; recombinant influenza vector