Date of Award

Spring 4-13-2022

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department/Major

Biology

First Advisor

Dr. Victor Huber, PhD

Second Advisor

Dr. Dawn Bragg, PhD

Third Advisor

Beate Wone

Keywords

influenza, propagation, titer, hemagglutination, pandemic

Subject Categories

Influenza Virus Vaccines

Abstract

We are investigating the use of the Huber laboratory H1N1 influenza broad-antibody response vaccine product candidates HA-111 and HA-113 against emerging swine H1N1 virus variants G1 and G4 that are circulating in China. The question is, what would happen in the event that the G1 and/or G4 viruses were to jump from swine to humans and become transmissible between humans? As a subtype of influenza A viruses, H1N1 viruses have pandemic potential due to their ability to infect a variety of hosts other than humans and acquire new gene segments from those other reservoirs. Broad-coverage influenza vaccines are of great interest in research today, as they could have the potential to limit the next pandemic if it were to be a result of an influenza virus. We hypothesize that our HA-111 and HA-113 vaccines will induce broad coverage as they introduce antibodies that react with recent H1N1 viruses, including G1 and G4. Using the hemagglutination inhibition assay, fetal pig serum sample groups were tested for broad-antibody response against the H1N1 viruses G1, G4, Cal09/pdm, MI15, GU19, BR18, and VIC19. Analysis of the HAI titers indicated that the HA-113 vaccine candidate shows a significant broad-antibody response against H1N1 viruses, greater than that of the HA-111 vaccine candidate.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.