Fig. 1
From: Towards a universal influenza vaccine: different approaches for one goal
Representation of ‘universal’ vaccine approaches under development. Top panel: schematic representation of COBRA-based approach. A phylogenetic tree is inferred based on hemagglutinin (HA) amino acid sequences. Primary and secondary consensus sequences are thus generated. Finally, the secondary consensus sequences are then aligned and the resulting consensus, designated COBRA, is generated. Central panel: schematic representation of approaches aimed at eliciting/boosting an antibody response against the HA stem region. These strategies rely on the chimerization of the HA molecule in order to direct the antibody response towards the stem region or on the masking of the head region (i.e. through the hyperglycosylation of the HA head). Bottom panel: schematic representation of anti-idiotype based approaches. As an example, a monoclonal antibody (mAb #1) recognizing a conserved and protective/neutralizing epitope of the HA molecule is used as a footprint antigen to elicit antibodies recognizing the idiotype of the original antibody (mAb #1). The best candidate anti-idiotype antibody able to elicit antibodies having similar binding and neutralizing characteristics of mAb #1 is then selected as immunizing antigen to develop epitope-based vaccine approaches