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ABSTRACT
Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial virus (RSV) infections together contribute significantly to the burden of acute lower respiratory tract infections. Despite the disease burden, no approved RSV vaccine is available. While approved vaccines are available for influenza, seasonal vaccination is required to maintain protection. In addition to both being respiratory viruses, they follow a common seasonality, which warrants the necessity for a concerted vaccination approach. Here, we designed bivalent vaccines by utilizing highly conserved sequences, targeting both influenza A and RSV, as either a chimeric antigen or individual antigens separated by a ribosome skipping sequence. These vaccines were found to be effective in protecting the animals from challenge by either virus, with mechanisms of protection being substantially interrogated in this communication.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Neda Nasheri and Dr Xu Zhang for critical review of the manuscript, Dr. Martha Navarro and her team at Health Canada's Animal Care Facility for the animal studies, and Dr. Don Caldwell and Dr. Gen Sheng Wang for pathological examination of the lung tissues.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
Data have been deposited in the Government of Canada Centralized repertoire and would be available upon request after publications.