Zeitschrift für Tropenkrankheiten und öffentliche Gesundheit

Abstrakt

Novel approaches for the development of live attenuated influenza vaccines

Huan Xu

Influenza virus still represents a considerable threat to global public health, despite the advances in the development and wide use of influenza vaccines. Vaccination with traditional inactivate influenza vaccines (IIV) or live-attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) remains the main strategy in the control of annual seasonal epidemics, but it does not offer protection against new influenza viruses with pandemic potential, those that have shifted. Moreover, the continual antigenic drift of seasonal circulating influenza viruses, requiring yearly reformulation of seasonal influenza vaccines, seriously compromises vaccine efficacy. Therefore, the quick optimization of vaccine production for seasonal influenza and the development of new vaccine approaches for pandemic viruses is still a challenge for the prevention of influenza infections have not yet been elucidated, researchers are encouraged to develop new vaccines that overcome the limitations that are associated with the current LAIV. The discovery and implementation of plasmid-based reverse genetics has been a key in this review, we provide an update regarding the progress and the innovative ways that are being explored as alternatives to the currently licensed LAIV. The safety, immunogenicity, and protection efficacy profile of these new LAIVs reveal their possibility in combating influenza infections. However, efforts by vaccine companies and government agencies will be needed for developing and approving, respectively, these new vaccine methodologies for the control of influenza infections.