T helper type (Th1/Th2) responses to SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A (H1N1) virus: From cytokines produced to immune responses

Influenza is a highly known contagious viral infection that has been responsible for the death of many people in history with pandemics. These pandemics have been occurring every 10 to 30 years in the last century. The most recent global pandemic prior to COVID-19 was the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. A decade ago, the H1N1 virus caused 12,500 deaths in just 19 months globally. Now, again, the world has been challenged with another pandemic. Since December 2019, the first case of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection was detected in Wuhan. This infection has risen rapidly throughout the world; even the World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 as a worldwide emergency to ensure human health and public safety. This review article aims to discuss important issues relating to COVID-19, including clinical, epidemiological, and pathological features of COVID-19 and recent progress in diagnosis and treatment approaches for the COVID-19 infection. We also highlight key similarities and differences between COVID-19 and influenza A to ensure the theoretical and practical details of COVID-19.

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Next Generation of Computationally Optimized Broadly Reactive HA Vaccines Elicited Cross-Reactive Immune Responses and Provided Protection against H1N1 Virus Infection

Vaccines ◽

10.3390/vaccines9070793 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 793

Author(s):

Ying Huang ◽

Monique S. França ◽

James D. Allen ◽

Hua Shi ◽

Ted M. Ross

Keyword(s):

Influenza Virus ◽

Virus Infection ◽

Immune Responses ◽

H1n1 Virus ◽

Influenza Virus Infection ◽

H1n1 Influenza ◽

Influenza Viruses ◽

Next Generation ◽

Wild Type ◽

Influenza A H1n1

Vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza virus infections, but the diversity of antigenically distinct isolates is a persistent challenge for vaccine development. In order to conquer the antigenic variability and improve influenza virus vaccine efficacy, our research group has developed computationally optimized broadly reactive antigens (COBRAs) in the form of recombinant hemagglutinins (rHAs) to elicit broader immune responses. However, previous COBRA H1N1 vaccines do not elicit immune responses that neutralize H1N1 virus strains in circulation during the recent years. In order to update our COBRA vaccine, two new candidate COBRA HA vaccines, Y2 and Y4, were generated using a new seasonal-based COBRA methodology derived from H1N1 isolates that circulated during 2013–2019. In this study, the effectiveness of COBRA Y2 and Y4 vaccines were evaluated in mice, and the elicited immune responses were compared to those generated by historical H1 COBRA HA and wild-type H1N1 HA vaccines. Mice vaccinated with the next generation COBRA HA vaccines effectively protected against morbidity and mortality after infection with H1N1 influenza viruses. The antibodies elicited by the COBRA HA vaccines were highly cross-reactive with influenza A (H1N1) pdm09-like viruses isolated from 2009 to 2021, especially with the most recent circulating viruses from 2019 to 2021. Furthermore, viral loads in lungs of mice vaccinated with Y2 and Y4 were dramatically reduced to low or undetectable levels, resulting in minimal lung injury compared to wild-type HA vaccines following H1N1 influenza virus infection.

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Influenza A (H1N1) virus infection and TNF-308, IL6, and IL8 polymorphisms in Egyptian population: a case–control study

The Journal of Basic and Applied Zoology ◽

10.1186/s41936-019-0131-1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 80 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shaimaa Moustafa Elsayed ◽

Omayma Mohamed Hassanein ◽

Nagwa Hassan Ali Hassan

Keyword(s):

Influenza A ◽

Case Control Study ◽

H1n1 Virus ◽

Case Control ◽

Severe Illness ◽

Study Results ◽

Influenza A H1n1 ◽

Pandemic Strains ◽

Study Participants ◽

Control Study

Abstract Background The importance of influenza is increasing mainly because of the appearance of novel pandemic strains such as swine and avian. Each year, influenza has spread around the world causing about 250,000–500,000 deaths and more than 5 million cases of severe illness. The objective is as follows: evaluating the outcomes of patients with influenza A (H1N1) virus in relation to certain TNF-308, IL6, and IL8 polymorphisms and identifying the associated factors with the severe outcome. Subject and methods This is a case–control study. The cases were patients confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to be influenza A (H1N1) virus infected. The controls were healthy individuals. Medical history and outcome of the disease was registered. In all study participants, polymorphisms of TNF rs1800629, IL6 rs18138879, and IL8 rs4073; odds ratio (OR); and the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated. Results Infection with influenza A (H1N1) virus was associated more with the following genotypes: TNF-308 AA (OR = 4.041; 95% CI = 1.215–13.4) and IL8 AA (OR = 3.273; 95% CI = 1.372–7.805). According to our study results, HCV (OR = 3.2, 95% CI 1.2–8.5), renal disease (OR = 3.4, 95% CI 0.9–13.6), cancer (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 0.3–31.1), TB (OR = 8.4, 95% CI 1.8–39.7), ICU (OR = 2.9, 95%1.2–7.1), and mortality (OR = 7.9, 95% CI 0.9–67.4) are considered as risk factors for influenza A (H1N1)-infected patients. Conclusions Our findings concluded that TNF-308 (AA) and IL8 (AA) polymorphisms may increase the susceptibility to be infected with H1N1influenza virus.

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