Intranasal vaccination with a replication-deficient influenza virus induces heterosubtypic neutralising mucosal IgA antibodies in humans

We investigated the cross-neutralising potential of serum and nasal wash samples from volunteers who were intranasally immunised once with a monovalent replication-deficient deINS1-H1N1 influenza virus vaccine (7.7 log(10) TCID50/volunteer). Eight out of twelve (8/12) vaccinees responded to vaccination with a significant increase of antibody levels in serumIgG ELISA, mucosal IgA ELISA, MNA or HAI. Four responders showed deINS1-specific ELISA IgA increases and revealed excellent homosubtypic neutralising activity in serum and mucosal washings (4/4). However, 0/4 of the sera but 3/4 of the nasal washings neutralised also heterosubtypic H3N2 and H5N1 influenza viruses. Depletion experiments proved that IgA but not IgG is responsible for the cross-neutralising activity of the nasal wash sample. Our findings indicate that the induction of virus-neutralising IgA may represent a valuable correlate of cross-protection of intranasal influenza vaccines and that the deINS1 concept constitutes a promising approach to protect humans from seasonal and pandemic influenza threats. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.