Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Florian Krammer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
- Second opponent: Professor Rebecca Jane Cox Brokstad, University of Bergen, Norway
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Marit Inngjerdingen, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Emeritus Inger Sandlie, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Researcher Ranveig Braathen, University of Oslo
Summary
Rapidly evolving influenza viruses pose a continuous threat for seasonal and pandemic outbreaks. Conventional influenza vaccines focus on the main viral surface protein hemagglutinin (HA). Neuraminidase (NA) is a neglected but promising vaccine antigen that might add an additional layer of protection. This thesis explored the benefit of NA as a novel antigen in a DNA vaccine platform that targets antigen-presenting cells (APCs) for increased vaccine efficacy.
We showed that a DNA vaccine encoding APC-targeted NA induced NA-inhibiting antibodies, T cells, and potent protection against influenza in mice. Combining both HA and NA by utilizing two distinct APC-targeted vaccine molecules further increased protection and provided a benefit against heterologous influenza virus strains. A mix vaccine containing multiple subtypes of both HA and NA resulted in broad responses towards different influenza strains.
These results demonstrate that the APC-targeted DNA vaccine is a suitable strategy to induce potent responses against NA. Eliciting broad responses against both HA and NA should receive more attention in vaccine research and is an important step towards a universal influenza vaccine.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.