Intranasal administration of immunogenic poly-epitope from influenza H1N1 and H3N2 viruses adjuvanted with chitin and chitosan microparticles in BALB/c mice

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Medical Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Objective(s): Prevalence of influenza virus, creates the need to achieve an efficient vaccine against it. We examined whether the predicted antigenic epitopes of HA, NP, and M2 proteins of the influenza H1N1 and H3N2 viruses accompanied by chitin and chitosan biopolymers might be relevant to the induction of effective proper mucosal responses.
Materials and Methods: The construct was prepared using B and T cell predicted epitopes of HA, NP, and M2 proteins from the influenza H1N1 and H3N2 viruses by considering haplotype “d” as a dominant allele in the BALB/c mice. Intranasal immunization with purified LPS free recombinant protein together with chitin and chitosan microparticles as adjuvants was administered at an interval of 2 weeks in thirty-five BALB/c female mice which were divided into seven groups. Ten days after the last immunization, humoral and cellular immune responses were examined.
Results: Elevated systemic IgG2a, IgA, and mucosal IgA revealed a humoral response to the construct. An increase in the number of IFN-γ-producing cells in re-stimulation of splenocytes in the culture medium by poly-tope as well as rise in the concentrations of IL-6, IL-17, and TNF-α along with the regulatory response of IL-10, presented the capacity of the designed protein to provoke significant immune responses. The neutralization test ultimately confirmed the high efficacy of the protein in inhibiting the virus.
Conclusion: The results support the fact that immunogenic poly-tope protein in the presence of chitin and chitosan microparticles as mucosal adjuvants is able to induce humoral and cell-mediated responses in BALB/c mice.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 8
August 2021
Pages 1126-1137

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