Elicitation of Protective Immune Responses Against Influenza Virus Following Intranasal Delivery of Fluzone or Flublok Vaccines

Background/Objectives: While new vaccines are in development; one strategy to increase influenza vaccine coverage is to repurpose current influenza vaccines for intranasal delivery. Methods: To address this goal; mice were vaccinated intranasally with either a split inactivated virus vaccine (Fluzone) or a recombinant HA vaccine (Flublok) at one of two doses (1 μg high dose or 0.1 μg low dose). Both vaccines were adjuvanted with either a STING agonist; c-di-AMP (CDA); or a combination of a synthetic toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and TLR7/8 agonist (TRAC478). Results: Mice vaccinated with either vaccine plus adjuvant had higher hemagglutination-inhibition titers than mice administered unadjuvanted vaccines. Mice vaccinated with either vaccine plus CDA had on average higher numbers of H3 and influenza B hemagglutinin (HA)-specific antibody-secreting cells (ASCs); whereas mice vaccinated with vaccine plus TRAC478 had on average higher number of H1 HA-specific ASCs. All vaccinated mice challenged with the H1N1 influenza virus were protected against both morbidity and mortality with no detectable virus in their lungs. Mice challenged with the H3N2 influenza virus all lost weight over the first 5 days of infection. Adding TRAC478 with either a high or low dose vaccine resulted in 80–100% survival following challenge. Almost all mice vaccinated with Flublok plus CDA died from H3N2 influenza virus challenged with ~2 logs higher viral lung titers than mice administered Flublok only or Flublok plus TRAC478. Conclusions: Overall; Fluzone and Flublok can effectively be used for intranasal vaccination.