How Flu Shot Manufacturing Forces Influenza to Mutate

How Flu Shot Manufacturing Forces Influenza to Mutate Egg-Based Production Causes Virus to Target Bird Cells, Making Vaccine Less Effective

LA JOLLA, Calif. Oct. 30, 2017 According to a new study from scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the common practice of growing influenza vaccine components in chicken eggs disrupts the major antibody target site on the virus surface, rendering the flu vaccine less effective in humans.

Now we can explain at an atomic level why egg-based vaccine production is causing problems, said TSRI Research Associate Nicholas Wu, Ph.D., first author of the study, published recently in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

For more than 70 years, manufacturers have made the flu vaccine by injecting influenza into chicken eggs, allowing the virus to replicate inside the eggs and then purifying the fluid from the eggs to get enough of the virus to use in vaccines.

The subtype of influenza in this study, called H3N2, is one of several subtypes shown to mutate when grown in chicken eggs, and the researchers say the new findings further support the case for alternative approaches to growing the virus.

Any influenza viruses produced in eggs have to adapt to growing in that environment and hence generate mutations to grow better, explained study senior author Ian Wilson, D.Phil., Hansen Professor of Structural Biology at TSRI.

The new study shows exactly why egg-based manufacturing is a problem for the H3N2 subtype. As H3N2 influenza has become more prevalent, scientists formulating the seasonal flu vaccine have sought to include this virus and teach the human immune system to fight it. Despite this effort, recent flu vaccines have proven only 33 percent effective against H3N2 viruses.

Wu used a high-resolution imaging technique called X-ray crystallography to show that when grown in eggs the H3N2 subtype mutates a key protein to better attach to receptors in bird cells. Specifically, there was a mutation called L194P on the virus's hemagglutinin glycoprotein (HA). This mutation disrupts the region on the protein that is commonly recognized by our immune system.

This means a vaccine containing the mutated version of the protein will not be able to trigger an effective immune response. This leaves the body without protection against circulating strains of H3N2.

In fact, Wu's analysis shows that the current strain of H3N2 used in vaccines already contains this specific mutation L194P on HA. Vaccine producers need to look at this mutation, cautioned Wu.

The researchers say further studies are needed to investigate replacing the egg-based system. Other methods are now being used and explored for production of vaccines in mammalian cells using cell-based methods and recombinant HA protein vaccines, said Wilson.

There's a huge need for flu vaccine research, added Wu.

In addition to Wu and Wilson, authors of the study, A structural explanation for the low effectiveness of the seasonal influenza H3N2 vaccine, were Andrew J. Thompson, David Oyen, Corwin M. Nycholat, Ryan McBride and Scott E. Hensley of TSRI; and Seth J. Zost and Scott E. Hensley of the University of Pennsylvania.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants R56 AI117675, R56 AI127371, R01 AI114730, R01 AI113047 and R01 AI108686) and a Croucher Foundation Fellowship.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the worlds largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering or Medicine work toward their next discoveries. The institutes graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. In October 2016, TSRI announced a strategic affiliation with the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), representing a renewed commitment to the discovery and development of new medicines to address unmet medical needs. For more information, see www.scripps.edu.

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