Induction of antihemagglutinin antibodies by polyclonal antiidiotype antibodies.

Antiidiotypic antibodies can be envisioned as an alternative approach in the development of vaccines against influenza virus, which exhibits natural antigenic variations. In our work, we obtained two polyclonal cross-reactive anti-Id antibodies against PY102, VM113, and VM202 mAbs, which in turn are specific respectively for PR8 virus and laboratory-induced virus variants (PY102-V1 and VM113-V1). With these cross-reactive anti-Id antibodies, we were able to elicit anti-HA antibodies in mice. In comparing the anti-HA antibody response in animals injected with anti-Id antibodies to those immunized with PR8 influenza virus, we demonstrated that the HI titer was higher after virus immunization and that the PR8 virus boost was more efficient in this group. Our results showed that the polyclonal cross-reactive anti-Id antibodies were more efficient than the individual anti-Ids at eliciting responses. At the same time, we demonstrated that PR8-primed T cells, cultured with B cells from animals immunized with anti-Id antibodies, were able to produce anti-PR8 antibodies subsequent to stimulation with influenza virus.