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Abstract
The respiratory disease influenza gives rise to severe public health concerns. During inter-pandemic periods, the constant problem of the annually recurring seasonal influenza is perpetuated by the ability of influenza viruses to alter their surface antigens continuously (antigenic drift). Therefore, vaccines eliciting broad immunity against drift variants still remain a major objective in vaccine development. The patent WO2008048984 evaluated in this article claims an approach which aims to elicit homosubtypic protection against drift variants by simultaneous vaccination with several hemagglutinins (HAs) of the same serotype. The proposed multivalent vaccine based on simultaneous administration of several HAs, the results obtained from mice immunization studies and the implications of this concept are discussed in light of their relevance to application in humans. This proof-of-principle study suggests that a multivalent HA vaccine could elicit broad protection against drifted virus variants of one HA subtype. In the future, the dependence of broad efficacy on large antigenic distances among the HAs used for immunization as well as the antigenic distance between the HAs administered to that of the challenge virus, the immunological correlates of broad efficacy, and the suitability of this concept for domestic animals and humans remain to be investigated.