Study of Monophosphoril lipid A, from Bordetella pertussis LPS, mechanisms as Influenza vaccine adjuvant

• Grant number: 14/15297-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2014
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Immunology
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Soares Schanoski
• Grantee: Alessandra Soares Schanoski
• Host Institution: Instituto Butantan. Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Cliomar Alves dos Santos ; Enéas de Carvalho ; Helder Takashi Imoto Nakaya ; Inácio de Loiola Meirelles Junqueira de Azevedo ; Leonardo Paiva Farias ; Milena Apetito Akamatsu ; Paulo Lee Ho

Abstract

Aluminum salts have been widely used in vaccine formulations for more than 80 years, but since its introduction few novel vaccine and adjuvants formulations have been developed. The immunological responses and their pathways have been considered essential to the studies about the improvement of vaccines formulations. In the last years, the implication of innate immunity in triggering the adaptive response is becoming gradually unveiled and extremely helpful to the development of optimized vaccines and adjuvants.The currently administered influenza trivalent vaccine in Brazil (which is produced by Instituto Butantan) does not include any adjuvant in its formulation. The influenza seasonal vaccine contains 3 strains of influenza viruses that can undergo high mutation rates by antigenic drift. Those mutations can lead the viruses to evade from immune system and the vaccine formulations need to be changed annually, according to the results of global influenza surveillance data, from World Health Organization. Previous studies performed at Instituto Butantan showed that the use of MPLA (Monophosphoril Lipid A) obtained from Bordetella pertussis and aluminum salts, as adjuvants of influenza vaccine, were safe and highly efficient. Nevertheless the mechanisms underlying the MPLA efficacy in the influenza vaccine formulation remain poorly investigated. For this reason our purpose with this project is to study the mechanisms related to MPLA use in the trivalent influenza vaccine formulation. We will make use of a non-reductionist area of study, Systems Vaccinology, to analyze the transcriptome/molecular signatures of animals immunized with influenza vaccine, with MPLA and aluminum salts.The present project involves the collaboration between scientific and production areas of Instituto Butantan, with the aim of contributing to the trivalent influenza vaccine formulation improvement. (AU)