Lipopeptide vaccines illustrate the potential role of subtype-crossreactive T cells in the control of highly virulent influenza

Abstract

Background: The best form of protection against influenza is high-titred virus-neutralizing antibody specific for the challenge strain. However, this is not always possible to achieve by vaccination due to the need for predicting the emerging virus, whether it be a drift variant of existing human endemic influenza type A subtypes or the next pandemic virus, for incorporation into the vaccine. By activating additional arms of the immune system to provide heterosubtypic immunity, that is immunity active against all viruses of type A influenza regardless of subtype or strain, it should be possible to provide significant benefit in situations where appropriate antibody responses are not achieved..