The influenza virus has been responsible for several pandemics, and highly pathogenic avian influenza (hpai) viruses remain a significant threat to public health

The University of Maryland, College Park received a $648,881 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The grant aims to develop universal mucosal vaccines delivered through an FcRn-based platform that can prevent initial and recurrent influenza H5N1 infections in the airway and reduce transmission between animals and from animals to humans. The research seeks to address limitations with current intramuscular influenza vaccines, which do not effectively prevent respiratory infections and transmission. The project will leverage the FcRn platform to engineer, manufacture, and adapt mucosal vaccines that can trigger protective immune responses in the nasal and lung compartments, preventing virus replication and limiting transmission. This 3-year grant project runs from Mar 15, 2025 to Mar 14, 2028.

A recent spillover of the hpai H5N1 virus to dairy cows has led to human infections, highlighting the need for safe and effective vaccines to prevent influenza airway infections in cows and reduce spread between animals and humans. Current intramuscular vaccines, such as mrna vaccines, are highly effective in reducing severe diseases and deaths but do not prevent respiratory infections and transmission. This limitation arises because intramuscular vaccines primarily stimulate systemic immunity, which is insufficient for protecting the respiratory mucosa. To address this challenge, developing mucosal vaccines that elicit long-lasting mucosal immunity is essential. These vaccines could prevent both initial and recurrent influenza virus infections and their transmission. Recent studies have demonstrated that using an fcrn-based platform to deliver influenza hemagglutinin (HA) and sars-COV-2 spike antigens through the airway can induce protective mucosal immunity in both the nasal and lung compartments. This nasal vaccine effectively prevents virus replication in animals and limits transmission among them. These findings led US to reason that fcrn-mediated nasal spray vaccines for influenza can trigger recall responses that protect against initial and recurrent H5N1 infections in the airway and reduce animal-to-animal and animal-to-human transmission. Given the rapidly evolving nature of influenza viruses, we aim to develop universal mucosal vaccines. The vaccines delivered through the fcrn platform can be easily engineered, manufactured, and adapted for use against other mucosal infections in livestock.