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oai:recercat.cat:20.500.12327/30542025-10-22T11:09:15Zcom_2072_4428com_2072_4427col_2072_487898

Development of a Fully Protective Pandemic Avian Influenza Subunit Vaccine in Insect Pupae Falcón, Ana Martínez-Pulgarín, Susana López-Serrano, Sergi Reytor, Edel Cid, Miguel Núñez, Maria del Carmen Córdoba, Lorena Darji, Ayub Escribano, José M. Producció Animal Sanitat Animal In this study, we pioneered an alternative technology for manufacturing subunit influenza hemagglutinin (HA)-based vaccines. This innovative method involves harnessing the pupae of the Lepidoptera Trichoplusia ni (T. ni) as natural biofactories in combination with baculovirus vectors (using CrisBio® technology). We engineered recombinant baculoviruses encoding two versions of the HA protein (trimeric or monomeric) derived from a pandemic avian H7N1 virus A strain (A/chicken/Italy/5093/99). These were then used to infect T. ni pupae, resulting in the production of the desired recombinant antigens. The obtained HA proteins were purified using affinity chromatography, consistently yielding approximately 75 mg/L of insect extract. The vaccine antigen effectively immunized poultry, which were subsequently challenged with a virulent H7N1 avian influenza virus. Following infection, all vaccinated animals survived without displaying any clinical symptoms, while none of the mock-vaccinated control animals survived. The CrisBio®-derived antigens induced high titers of HA-specific antibodies in the vaccinated poultry, demonstrating hemagglutination inhibition activity against avian H7N1 and human H7N9 viruses. These results suggest that the CrisBio® technology platform has the potential to address major industry challenges associated with producing recombinant influenza subunit vaccines, such as enhancing production yields, scalability, and the speed of development, facilitating the global deployment of highly effective influenza vaccines. 2025-10-22T11:09:15Z 2025-10-22T11:09:15Z 2025-10-22T11:09:15Z 2024-05-23 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Falcón, Ana, Susana Martínez-Pulgarín, Sergi López-Serrano, Edel Reytor, Miguel Cid, Maria Del Carmen Nuñez, Lorena Córdoba, Ayub Darji, and José M. Escribano. 2024. “Development of a Fully Protective Pandemic Avian Influenza Subunit Vaccine in Insect Pupae.” Viruses 16 (6): 829. https://doi.org/10.3390/v16060829. 1999-4915 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12327/3054 https://doi.org/10.3390/v16060829 eng Viruses http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Attribution 4.0 International MDPI