Chinese scientists propose a new live-virus flu vaccine

Using attenuated, live viruses as vaccines is a promising strategy to reduce the impact of viral infectious diseases, such as influenza. Traditional live-attenuated virus vaccines have, however, often been limited due to suboptimal immunogenicity (the ability to invoke an immune response), safety concerns, or cumbersome manufacturing processes and techniques. Additionally, immune escape due to rapid viral evolution poses a further challenge for traditional influenza vaccines. A team of researchers led by Prof. Longlong Si from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently proposed a new live-attenuated influenza vaccine approach. Namely, generating proteolysis-targeting chimeric (PROTAC) influenza A virus as a live-attenuated vaccine by utilizing the endogenous ubiquitin-proteasome system of host cells to degrade viral proteins. The findings were published on July 4 in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Because virus replication depends on virally encoded proteins, manipulation of viral protein stability by utilizing the protein degradation machinery...