Minireview J Mol Genet Med (December 2009), 3(2), 205-209 doi: jmgm Published online: 15 December 2009 Full Text: (html | pdf ~251kb | refs) Acquired heterosubtypic antibodies in human immunity for avian H5N1 influenza Garry W Lynch †‡¥*, Paul Selleck § and John S Sullivan ¶ † Biosafety, Immunobiology, Global Health and Pandemic Infections Research, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia ‡ Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia ¥ Cellular and Molecular Pathology Research Unit, Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine, Westmead Centre for Oral Health, Westmead Hospital and Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia § The Australian Animal Health Laboratories, CSIRO, Geelong, Vic 3219, Australia ¶ Children's Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australi French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD), Animal and Integrated Risk Management Research Unit, Baillarguet Campus, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France *Correspondence to: Garry Lynch, Email: garry_lynch@optusnet.com.au, Tel: +61 2 9519 8151, Fax: +61 2 9519 8151 Received: 31 August 2009, Revised: 07 December 2009, Accepted: 09 December 2009 © Copyright The Authors ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Well understood are the adaptive and dramatic neutralizing homosubtypic antibody responses to hypervariable, immunodominant sites of the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) of individual influenza strains. These define influenza subtypes and vaccines modelled upon their HA and NA antigens provide seasonal neutralizing antibody protection against subsequent exposure to the strain and its close relatives, but give little if any protection against antigenically drifted or shifted strains. Contrasting to this is a different form of acquired antibody response, called heterosubtypic immunity. This provides a more seasoned adaptive antibody response to immune-recessive epitopes that are highly-conserved amongst strains. Although, such responses are of lower individual amplitudes than seasonal mechanisms they are active across influenza subtypes, and may give pre-emptive protection against new strains yet to emerge. Heterosubtypic immunities have been well studied in animals, but surprisingly there is minimal evidence for this type of antibody immunity in humans. Thus championed is the notion that seasoned humoral responses can through repeated exposure to sites widely conserved across different strains, cumulatively provide humans with a level of broad protection against emergent novel strains, such as H5N1, that is not afforded by seasonal humoral responses. Keyswords: Influenza, H5N1, H1N1, pandemic, immunity, heterosubtypic, antibody ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Privacy | Disclaimer |