An alternative neutralization assay for H5N1 influenza A virus using retroviral pseudotypes

预防流感病毒感染的主要保护措施是血液中存在病毒中和抗体。从流感中恢复过来的人有针对该流感病毒株的中和抗体，有效的流感疫苗注射会引发类似的保护性抗体。为了帮助开发和测试针对新型致命H5N1流感病毒的疫苗，我们将改进一种新型中和试验，该试验使用人工构建的无害病毒样颗粒代替有害的流感病毒本身。我们的测试应该是简单易用，将不需要一个高遏制实验室。它应提供一种方法来比较来自不同地点的H5N1流感病毒亚型之间的变异，并评估候选疫苗是否对所有亚型都有保护作用。它还可能提供一种方法来测试阻止流感病毒进入细胞的候选药物。

The main protection against infection by influenza viruses is the presence of virus neutralizing antibodies in the blood. People who have recovered from flu have neutralizing antibodies to that strain of influenza virus, and effective flu jabs elicit similar protective antibodies. To aid the development and testing of vaccines against the new, deadly H5N1 influenza virus, we shall refine a novel neutralization test that uses an artificially constructed, harmless virus-like particle in place of the harmful influenza virus itself. Our test should be simple to use and will not require a high containment laboratory. It should offer a means to compare variation between sub-strains of H5N1 influenza viruses from different locations, and to evaluate whether candidate vaccines protect against all sub-strains. It may also offer a method to test candidate drugs that block influenza virus getting into cells.