Epitope-based vaccine against influenza.

The currently available vaccines against influenza are viral strain specific and, hence, their efficacy is limited when the circulating strain is not the one included in them. We review herewith some of the more recently developed influenza vaccines and further describe our own data on the design of epitope-based broad-spectrum vaccine for human use. This vaccine is comprised of recombinant flagella that act as a carrier and adjuvant, expressing conserved epitopes of influenza proteins. These epitopes are common to the vast majority of influenza virus strains regardless of their antigenic drifts and shifts. The vaccine, activating both the humoral and cellular arms of the immune response, induces long-lasting protection against many strains of the influenza virus. Consequently, it is expected to protect against future strains as well.