Posts Tagged ‘H5N1’

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Emergency response vaccines for H5N1 influenza in South Africa

1 November, 2013

Our group has been working for some time now – since 2006, in fact – on investigating the feasibility of providing South (and southern) Africa with emergency response pandemic influenza vaccines.  The research was initiated after the Virology Africa 2005 conference that Anna-Lise Williamson and I organised in the Cape Town Waterfront in November of that year – when a senior WHO official warned us in his talk that “…if a pandemic hits, you are on your own: no-one will give you any vaccine”.

A group of us sat down afterwards, and discussed the feasibility of looking at emergency response vaccine(s), given that we had no capability in the whole of Africa to make flu vaccines.  Anna-Lise and I put together a proposal, with the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A as a target, which was funded on a once-off one-year basis by the Poliomyelitis Research Foundation (PRF) here in SA for 2006 – and then again by the PRF as a three-year Major Impact Project  (MIP) from 2008-2010, and subsequently to a lower level by both the PRF and the Medical Research Council of SA.  What made it all the more impressive for a South African project was that we had proposed expressing a protein-based vaccine in plants – quite a revolutionary prospect at the time, but something that followed on from the highly successful production of Human papillomavirus virus-like particles by transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana by  James Maclean, working as a postdoc in our lab at the time.

However, some of the most important work was done early: James was very quick to get the haemagglutinin (HA) gene for the A/Vietnam/1194/2004 strain of H5N1 synthesised by GeneArt in Germany, and cloned into the same Agrobacterium tumefaciens plant expression vectors from Professor Rainer Fischer’s lab in Aachen, Germany, that had been used for HPV.  His initial work showed that large amounts of HA protein could be produced, both as soluble protein which lacked a membrane localisation domain, and as the membrane-bound form.  This work formed the basis for a patent application on the transient expression of H5 HA that has now been granted.

Subsequently, when the PRF MIP started, we employed Dr Elizabeth (Liezl) Mortimer and Ms Sandiswa Mbewana to further the work: with collaborators from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg and State Veterinary Services in Stellenbosch, this investigated transient and transgenic expression of soluble and membrane-bound forms and their immunogenicity, as well as a DNA vaccine consisting of the HA genes cloned into Tomas Hanke’s pTH vector.

The protein expression work was published in 2012, as well as being featured here in ViroBlogy at the time.

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What we had managed to show was that we could get excellent production of the H5 HA in both soluble and bound forms, and that especially the membrane-associated form of the protein was highly immunogenic, and elicited antibodies in experimental animals that were appropriately neutralising, indicating its suitability as a vaccine candidate.

Now this all happened despite our running out of money AND Liezl leaving to have a baby…and then we managed to get another paper out of the work, this time on the DNA vaccine side of things.

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We pitched this at the South African Journal of Science as a vindication of the faith in us by exclusively South African funding agencies – and managed to get the cover of the issue in which it appears, thanks to the truly excellent artwork of Russell Kightley from Canberra, Australia.  Front AND back covers, as it happens…!

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And this all made Sandiswa Mbewana, who is now a PhD student on another project, very happy:

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This all came in excellent time to mark the establishment in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town, of a new URC Research Unit: namely, the Biopharming Research Unit (BRU).

BRU

Watch this space…B-)

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Posted in biofarming, biotechnology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General | 1 Comment »

Bird flu vaccine now? More than a shot in the dark | Reuters

11 July, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

“LONDON (Reuters) – Culls of hundreds of thousands of chickens, turkeys and ducks to stem bird flu outbreaks rarely make international headlines these days, but they are a worryingly common event as the deadly virus continues its march across the globe.

As scientists delve deeper into H5N1 avian influenza, they have discovered it is only three steps way from mutating into a potentially lethal human pandemic form, adding new urgency to a debate over how to protect humans.

In 2009, during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, vaccines only became available months after the virus had spread around the world – and even then there was only enough for one in five of the world’s 7 billion people.

Next time, experts say, we need another approach.

Talk is centred on “pre-pandemic vaccination” – immunising people years in advance against a flu pandemic that has yet to happen, and may never come, rather than rushing to create vaccines once a new pandemic starts.”

 

Yes, well: regulars of this blog will recognise that I have been rattling on about this topic for some time now; nice to see serious heavyweights are starting to do the same thing.

 

Seriously, pre-emptive vaccination could almost certainly not hurt, would probably help a LOT – and would amp up production capacity for H5 and other potential pandemic influenza viruses [see Mexico H7N3 outbreak] as well, for pandemic vaccine production readiness.

 

And of course, you could do it all in plants.  Just saying.

 

See on in.reuters.com

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Science| Special Issue: H5N1 [exploring the “supervirus” controversy]

29 June, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

“Introduction
The publication in this issue of these research papers on the airborne tranimssion [sic] of H5N1 marks the end of 8 months of controversy over whether some of the data, now freely accessible, should be withheld in the public interest.”

 

I think this is an important landmark in the so-called “dual use” debate: that is, the propensity of bodies in the US to attempt to regulate the release of information that MAY be usable in the making of bioweapons, or be usable in bioterror attacks.

 

Let us diffidently point out at this juncture that it is only really the superpowers who are definitively known in recent years to have had bioweapons programmes – apart from apartheid-era South Africa, that is! – and that damn nearly ANYTHING published on transmission or mechanisms of pathogenicity of human or animal pathogens (or even plant, for that matter) could be termed “dual use” if someone wanted to – and censored as a result.

 

It is also – as I tire of pointing out – possible to PROTECT against H5NX viruses using conventional vaccines right now – and the new universal flu vaccines coming on stream will almost certainly make this even more feasible.

 

The fact is that H5N1 flu is an ever-present threat to people living in Egypt, Indonesia, Cambodia, Viet Nam, Thailand and China – WITHOUT being weaponised.  It is no more than a notional threat to the US or Europe – and keeping information that could help in understanding how or how soon the virus could mutate to pandemicity out of people’s hands, is simply stupid. 

See on www.sciencemag.org

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Posted in General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General | Leave a Comment »

Five Mutations Make H5N1 Airborne | The Scientist

23 June, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

“After more than 6 months of heated discussion, the second group that succeeded in making the H5N1 avian flu transmissible between ferrets, considered a good model for human transmission, has published its results. The paper, which came out today (June 21) in Science, demonstrates that only five mutations are needed to confer this aerosol transmissibility among mammals, and that re-assortment between different types of viruses—a technique used by the other group, which published its results last month in Nature—is not necessary.

…

Said Fouchier in a press conference “We both find … loss of glycosylation at the tip of the HA molecule, and this loss of glycosylation seems to increase the receptor binding specificity of the HA”. And though not all the mutations identified in the two studies match, “the mutations that are not identical still have a similar phenotypic trait,” he added.”

 

So this is what all the fuss was about?  This is what the NSABB did not want everyone to know?  How could they POSSIBLY think that the international virology and infectious disease community should be kept in the dark about this?  What this work has done has pointed the way along a path that will lead us to understand why and how influenza viruses change in order to more effectively get transmitted when they switch hosts – which is a good thing, surely.

And yet all they see is bioterrorism.

See on the-scientist.com

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Posted in Evolution, General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General, Viruses | Leave a Comment »

Avian flu viruses which are transmissible between humans could evolve in nature

23 June, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

It might be possible for human-to-human airborne transmissible avian H5N1 influenza viruses to evolve in nature, new research has found.

The findings, from research led by Professor Derek Smith and Dr Colin Russell at the University of Cambridge, were published June 22 in the journal Science.
Currently, avian H5N1 influenza, also known as bird flu, can be transmitted from birds to humans, but not (or only very rarely) from human to human. However, two recent papers by Herfst, Fouchier and colleagues in Science and Imai, Kawaoka and colleagues in Nature reveal that potentially with as few as five mutations (amino acid substitutions), or four mutations plus reassortment, avian H5N1 can become airborne transmissible between mammals, and thus potentially among humans. However, until now, it was not known whether these mutations might evolve in nature.
The Cambridge researchers first analysed all of the surveillance data available on avian H5N1 influenza viruses from the last 15 years, focusing on birds and humans. They discovered that two of the five mutations seen in the experimental viruses (from the Fouchier and Kawaoka labs) had occurred in numerous existing avian flu strains. Additionally, they found that a number of the viruses had both of the mutations.
Colin Russell, Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, said: “Viruses that have two of these mutations are already common in birds, meaning that there are viruses that might have to acquire only three additional mutations in a human to become airborne transmissible. The next key question is ‘is three a lot, or a little?’ “

 

So: was it a good idea to publish those two papers on mutating H5N1 viruses, or not?  Given that as I and many other more famous people pointed out, if you don’t know what makes the viruses mammal-to-mammal transmissible, you don’t know what to look for – and now we do, and look what they found.  This story will run, and run, and run – so we really, really should include an H5 consensus HA in seasonal flu vaccines!!

See on www.sciencedaily.com

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Posted in Evolution, General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General, Viruses | Leave a Comment »

Narcolepsy traced to specific [flu] vaccine batches

4 June, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

“A new Swedish study shows that all Swedes who developed narcolepsy from the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix received the vaccine from 12 of the 35 batches, despite the claim by the responsible agency that no such connection exists.”

There are some slightly disturbing connections between the H1N1 2009 pdm virus and narcolepsy: the virus itself seems to have caused narcolepsy in some of those infected; now a vaccine is implicated – is this an innate property of certain of the virus proteins, possibly?

See on www.thelocal.se

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Posted in General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General | 2 Comments »

Nano Patents and Innovations: Powerful New Approach To Attack Flu Virus

28 May, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology and Bioinformatics from Virology.ca

An international research team has manufactured a new protein that can combat deadly flu epidemics.

The paper, featured on the cover of the current issue of Nature Biotechnology, demonstrates ways to use manufactured genes as antivirals, which disable key functions of the flu virus, said Tim Whitehead, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Michigan State University.

See on nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.fr

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Pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccination produces antibodies against multiple flu strains

27 May, 2012

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

“The pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccine can generate antibodies in vaccinated individuals not only against the H1N1 virus, but also against other influenza virus strains including H5N1 and H3N2.”

 

And a possible reason for this could be that the H1N1pdm virus’ haemagglutinin is a natural “ancestral” sequence – the kind that HIV vaccine researchers are looking for for gp120/160, which have been shown to elicit a wider spectrum of cross-reacting antibodies than “evolved” proteins, or ones that have been selected for antigenic escape in humans for a good few viral generations.

 

Flu vaccine graphic by Russell Kightley Media

See on www.eurekalert.org

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Setting up a platform for plant-based influenza virus vaccine production in South Africa

5 May, 2012

A virus-like particle formed by influenza virus haemagglutinin budding out of plant cells. By Russell Kightley Media

See it also on Scoop.it – Virology News

Our (very) recently-published article on plant-made flu vaccines in BMC Biotechnology:

Setting up a platform for plant-based influenza virus vaccine production in South Africa

Elizabeth Mortimer, James M Maclean, Sandiswa Mbewana, Amelia Buys, Anna-Lise Williamson, Inga I Hitzeroth and Edward P Rybicki

“Background
During a global influenza pandemic, the vaccine requirements of developing countries can surpass their supply capabilities, if these exist at all, compelling them to rely on developed countries for stocks that may not be available in time. There is thus a need for developing countries in general to produce their own pandemic and possibly seasonal influenza vaccines. Here we describe the development of a plant-based platform for producing influenza vaccines locally, in South Africa. Plant-produced influenza vaccine candidates are quicker to develop and potentially cheaper than egg-produced influenza vaccines, and their production can be rapidly upscaled. In this study, we investigated the feasibility of producing a vaccine to the highly pathogenic avian influenza A subtype H5N1 virus, the most generally virulent influenza virus identified to date. Two variants of the haemagglutinin (HA) surface glycoprotein gene were synthesised for optimum expression in plants: these were the full-length HA gene (H5) and a truncated form lacking the transmembrane domain (H5tr). The genes were cloned into a panel of Agrobacterium tumefaciens binary plant expression vectors in order to test HA accumulation in different cell compartments. The constructs were transiently expressed in tobacco by means of agroinfiltration. Stable transgenic tobacco plants were also generated to provide seed for stable storage of the material as a pre-pandemic strategy.

Results
For both transient and transgenic expression systems the highest accumulation of full-length H5 protein occurred in the apoplastic spaces, while the highest accumulation of H5tr was in the endoplasmic reticulum. The H5 proteins were produced at relatively high concentrations in both systems. Following partial purification, haemagglutination and haemagglutination inhibition tests indicated that the conformation of the plant-produced HA variants was correct and the proteins were functional. The immunisation of chickens and mice with the candidate vaccines elicited HA-specific antibody responses.

Conclusions
We managed, after synthesis of two versions of a single gene, to produce by transient and transgenic expression in plants, two variants of a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus HA protein which could have vaccine potential. This is a proof of principle of the potential of plant-produced influenza vaccines as a feasible pandemic response strategy for South Africa and other developing countries.”

I have mentioned time and again that going green is the sensible thing to do: here is a concrete example of how my research group is trying to go about it.  This is a very sensible technology for rapid-response vaccine production, and especially for emerging or orphan or pandemic virus threats.  We got really good expresion levels of H5N1 HA protein via transient expression in plants, and have already started on pandemic H1N1 HA expression.  Let’s hope some governmental types in SA take some notice!

I thank Russell Kightley Media for the specially-commissioned graphic of budded HA-only VLPs.

 

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Posted in General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General | 1 Comment »

Engineered H5N1: the wheels grind on, and on, and on….

19 April, 2012

The Scientist has a nice collection of articles on this topic, which I have commented on all over the place, so I though I might consolidate some of it in one place.

In response to the article entitled “Deliberating Over Danger“, I wrote the following:

The point I and others have made before is that H5N1 and other influenza viruses are not waiting for us to let engineered versions loose, before they cause pandemics: all of the mutations noted by the Fouchier and Kawaoka groups are almost certainly present in the several environments where H5N1 viruses are now endemic – and all it takes for all of them to be present together is a little more mixing.

Don’t discount other flu subtypes, either: while everyone is obsessing about H5N1, H3N2 is busy popping out of pigs in the USA; H9N2 in birds in Bangladesh; H5N2 in ostriches in South Africa – and all it would take is one or a couple of fortuitous reassortments, and a whole new flu virus could be unleashed.

While the “deadly” H5N1s are being worked on in lockdown facilities.

If we don’t know what the virus does, we won’t know what it can do. If we don’t know what to look for, we may be taken unawares, when the next 1918-type pandemic strikes.

I want to have universal flu vaccines by then – so we won’t HAVE to worry about a new flu

.

There are also three newer articles covering the controversy: these are

  • H5N1 Researcher to Defy Dutch Gov’t?
  • (with my comment – “Export permit to publish something?  Really?  A complete misapplication of laws to material that should not be subject to them.”)
  • White House Weighs in on H5N1
  • Flu Review Criticized
  • (with my comment – “So after a full and frank hearing did not go his way, after changes had been made to the paper in question (Fouchier’s), Osterholm complains.  Such is life….”

There is the slightly older article – “Bird Flu Papers to Publish” – describing the reversal of the NSABB’s decision to ask for redaction of the two papers describing mammal-to-mammal aerosol-transmissible H5N1.

An interesting article also describes Yoshihiro Kawaoka’s results:

“First, he introduced two mutations—N224K and Q226L—into the haemagglutinin (HA) protein of H5N1 that made the virus capable of sticking to receptors on human tracheal cells. Then he created a chimeric virus by combining the mutated HA protein with genes from the H1N1 virus, which sparked a pandemic in 2009. Kawaoka identified another HA mutation, called N158D, that allowed the virus to spread between ferrets that were not in direct physical contact. A fourth mutation, T318I, also showed up in the H5N1 strain, but its role in making the virus more transmissible among mammals is less clear.”

So there you are: an actual recipe for aerosol-transmissible H5N1.  It was always going to come out somehow, and now these two papers will probably the most cited flu papers ever.  Nothing like a little hype!  Meanwhile, H5 and its brothers and sisters are out there mutating away, with no help needed from anyone.  Roll on universal flu vaccines!!

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Posted in Evolution, General Virology, Influenza viruses, Vaccines: General, Viruses | Leave a Comment »

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