An immune-enhanced multivalent DNA nanovaccine to prevent H7 and H9 avian influenza virus in mice

H7 avian influenza virus has caused multiple human infections and poses a severe public health threat. In response to the highly variable nature of AIVs, a novel, easily regenerated DNA vaccine has great potential in treating or preventing avian influenza pandemics. Nevertheless, DNA vaccines have many disadvantages, such as weak immunogenicity and poor in vivo delivery. To further characterize and solve these issues and develop a novel H7 AIV DNA vaccine with enhanced stability and immunogenicity, we constructed nine AIV DNA plasmids, and the immunogenicity screened showed that mice immunized with pβH7N2SH9 elicited stronger hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) antibodies than other eight plasmid DNAs. Then, to address the susceptibility to degradation and low transfection rate of DNA vaccine in vivo, we developed pβH7N2SH9/DGL NPs by encapsulating the pβH7N2SH9 within the dendrigraft poly-l-lysines nanoparticles. As expected, these NPs exhibited excellent physical and chemical properties, were capable of promote lymphocyte proliferation, and induce stronger humoral and cellular responses than the naked pβH7N2SH9, including higher levels of HI antibodies than naked pβH7N2SH9, as well as the production of cytokines, namely, IL-2, IFN-α. Taken together, our results suggest that the construction of an immune-enhanced H7-AIV DNA nanovaccine may be a promising strategy against most influenza viruses.