Development of influenza live vaccine by reverse genetics

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Influenza virus is a highly infectious respiratory pathogen of birds and mammals, including human. It often produces significant mobidity and mortality in humans. Current methods of immunization against influenza virus include parental administration of inactivated influenza virus vaccines, which reduces the incidence of clinical illness in healthy subjects. But in some cases, immunization with inactivated vaccines is associated with very low protection rates or short protection periods.Another promising approach to vaccination is the use of live-attenuated influenza viruses. Theses vaccines have shown considerable promise in ongoing clinical trials. However, it has been concerned that the pathogenesis happened to recovered during their replication.We propose an alternative approach to the design of live virus vaccines, one that relies on alteration of the influenza A virus M2 protein which is responsible for ion channel activity. It did not show appreciable growth defect in cell culture, although its growth was attenuated in mice. It has shown that this M2 ion channel defective mutant virus protected mice against challenge with lethal doses of influenza virus, indicating the potential or incorporating this M2 alteration in a live influenza vaccine as one of the attenuating mutations.