Molecular Genetics of Influenza haemagglutinin production: Developing a rational basis for optimising vaccine yield

流感血凝素生产的分子遗传学：为优化疫苗产量建立合理的基础

• 批准号: G0600509/1
• 负责人: J Robertson
• 金额: $ 77.04万
• 依托单位: National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0600509%2F1
• 关键词: Molecular; Genetics; Influenza; haemagglutinin; production

Pandemic influenza presents a major threat to global public health. The ideal approach to countering this threat would be to develop a vaccine to prevent the disease. Unfortunately, however, because there are so many different types of influenza virus constantly circulating in humans and animals, and because the virus can mutate easily and quickly, scientists can?t predict exactly what the next pandemic virus will look like. It is not currently possible, therefore, to prepare in advance a vaccine that is guaranteed to work against any pandemic threat. For this reason, research scientists are trying to find ways of speeding up the process of developing and producing a vaccine once a pandemic has begun. An important part of this is maximising vaccine production capacity since during an outbreak, tens of millions of vaccine doses would need to be produced each week to have an impact on the first wave of disease. Influenza virus vaccines are produced in eggs and so the number of vaccine doses that can be produced from a given number of eggs is crucial. We know that this yield is quite variable depending on the particular virus strain that is used for vaccine production, but we don?t know why. This research project aims to understand the reasons behind this variable yield and to use this knowledge to find ways of developing high yielding vaccine strains that will help manufacturers produce the maximum possible number of vaccine doses in the shortest possible time when a pandemic strikes.

大流行性流感对全球公共卫生构成重大威胁。对付这种威胁的理想方法是开发一种疫苗来预防这种疾病。然而，不幸的是，由于有如此多不同类型的流感病毒不断在人类和动物中传播，而且由于病毒可以容易而迅速地变异，科学家们可以吗？我们不能准确地预测下一次大流行病毒会是什么样子。因此，目前不可能预先制备一种保证能对付任何大流行病威胁的疫苗。出于这个原因，研究科学家们正试图找到一旦大流行开始就加快开发和生产疫苗的方法。其中一个重要部分是最大限度地提高疫苗生产能力，因为在疫情爆发期间，每周需要生产数千万剂疫苗才能对第一波疾病产生影响。流感病毒疫苗是在鸡蛋中生产的，因此从给定数量的鸡蛋中可以生产的疫苗剂量是至关重要的。我们知道，这个产量是相当可变的，这取决于特定的病毒株，用于疫苗生产，但我们不知道？不知道为什么该研究项目旨在了解这种可变产量背后的原因，并利用这些知识找到开发高产疫苗株的方法，这将有助于制造商在大流行发生时在最短的时间内生产最大可能数量的疫苗剂量。