Induction of cross‐protective immunity against influenza A virus H5N1 by an intranasal vaccine with extracts of mushroom mycelia

Abstract

The identification of a safe and effective adjuvant that is able to enhance mucosal immune responses is necessary for the development of an efficient inactivated intranasal influenza vaccine. The present study demonstrated the effectiveness of extracts of mycelia derived from edible mushrooms as adjuvants for intranasal influenza vaccine. The adjuvant effect of extracts of mycelia was examined by intranasal co-administration of the extracts and inactivated A/PR8 (H1N1) influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) vaccine in BALB/c mice. The inactivated vaccine in combination with mycelial extracts induced a high anti-A/PR8 HA-specific IgA and IgG response in nasal washings and serum, respectively. Virus-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses were also induced by administration of the vaccine with extract of mycelia, resulting in protection against lethal lung infection with influenza virus A/PR8. In addition, intranasal administration of NIBRG14 vaccine derived from the influenza A/Vietnam/1194/2004 (H5N1) virus strain administered in conjunction with mycelial extracts from Phellinus linteus conferred cross-protection against heterologous influenza A/Indonesia/6/2005 virus challenge in the nasal infection model. In addition, mycelial extracts induced proinflammatory cytokines and CD40 expression in bone marrow-derived dendritic cells. These results suggest that mycelial extract-adjuvanted vaccines can confer cross-protection against variant H5N1 influenza viruses. The use of extracts of mycelia derived from edible mushrooms is proposed as a new safe and effective mucosal adjuvant for use for nasal vaccination against influenza virus infection.

The role of edible mushrooms in health: Evaluation of the evidence

“…The effects of a mushroom-derived active hexose correlated compound (AHCC) on the immune response to influenza A virus (H1N1, PR8) infection were shown to be dose dependent with low-dose AHCC supplementation improving the response to influenza infection despite no effect on total NK cell cytotoxicity (Nogusa, Gerbino, & Ritz, 2009). Extracts from P. linteus also provided protection against variant H5N1 influenza viruses (Ichinohe et al, 2010).…”

Biotechnological leap in biopharmaceuticals: Current status and challenges ahead

“…There was search for effective and protective adjuvant for the enhancement of H5N1 intranasal vaccine from the extracts obtained from mushroom mycelia. This was a good approach [84].…”

Transgenic plants as green factories for vaccine production

“…Plant-derived influenza H5N1 (A/Anhui/1/05) antigen, alone or formulated with bis-(3', 5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) as adjuvant induces strong mucosal and systemic humoral immune responses. Search for safe and effective adjuvant to enhance H5N1 intranasal vaccine with extracts of mushroom mycelia was found to be good (Ichinolhe et al, 2010).…”