Abstract
Influenza viruses often evade host immunity via antigenic drift and shift despite previous influenza virus infection and/or vaccination. Vaccines that match circulating virus strains are needed for optimal protection. Development of a universal influenza virus vaccine providing broadly cross-protective immunity will be of great importance. The nucleoprotein (NP) of influenza A virus is highly conserved among all strains of influenza A viruses and has been explored as an antigen for developing a universal influenza virus vaccine. In this work, we generated a recombinant parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) containing NP from H5N1 (A/Vietnam/1203/2004), a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, between HN and L (PIV5-NP-HN/L) and tested its efficacy. PIV5-NP-HN/L induced humoral and T cell responses in mice. A single inoculation of PIV5-NP-HN/L provided complete protection against lethal heterosubtypic H1N1 challenge and 50% protection against lethal H5N1 HPAI virus challenge. To improve efficacy, NP was inserted into different locations within the PIV5 genome. Recombinant PIV5 containing NP between F and SH (PIV5-NP-F/SH) or between SH and HN (PIV5-NP-SH/HN) provided better protection against H5N1 HPAI virus challenge than did PIV5-NP-HN/L. These results suggest that PIV5 expressing NP from H5N1 has the potential to be utilized as a universal influenza virus vaccine.