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Review

Egg-independent vaccine strategies for highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses

Aseem Pandey, Neetu Singh, Suryaprakash Sambhara and Suresh K. Mittal

The emergence of a highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus in Hong Kong in 1997, and the subsequent appearance of other H5N1 strains and their spread to several countries in south-east Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe has evoked fear of a global influenza pandemic. Vaccines offer the best hope to combat the threat of an influenza pandemic. However, the global demand for a pandemic vaccine cannot be fulfilled by the current egg-based vaccine manufacturing strategies, thus creating a need to explore alternative technologies for vaccine production and delivery. Several egg-independent vaccine approaches such as cell culture-derived whole virus or subvirion vaccines, recombinant protein-based vaccines, virus like particle (VLP) vaccines, DNA vaccines and viral vector-based vaccines are currently being investigated and appear promising both in preclinical and clinical studies. The present review will highlight the various egg-independent alternative vaccine approaches for pandemic influenza.

Authors

Aseem Pandey

Department of Comparative Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Bindley Bioscience Center, Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, USA

Neetu Singh

Department of Comparative Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Bindley Bioscience Center, Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, USA

Suryaprakash Sambhara

Influenza Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA USA

Suresh K. Mittal Corresponding author: mittal@purdue.edu

Department of Comparative Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN USA