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Inovio Biomedical Corp. Universal Flu Vaccines Demonstrate Broadly Protective Immune Responses Against Multiple Seasonal & Pandemic Influenza Viruses in Pre-Clinical Studies
6:00am EST 

Inovio Biomedical Corp. announced that a combination of its synthetic consensus H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 influenza vaccine candidates achieved protective antibody responses against several different influenza sub-types and strains in ferrets. In addition, ferrets immunized with Inovio`s SynCon universal flu vaccine combinations were 100% protected against death and sickness in a challenge with the A/H1N1 (2009) swine-origin influenza. In these studies the researchers immunized ferrets with either a vaccine formulation targeting only H1N1 viruses (seasonal and pandemic) or a universal vaccine formulation targeting H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 viruses. Ferrets are considered to be the most relevant animal model for influenza vaccine development. The first test was a measurement of hemagglutination inhibition (HI) responses: blood taken from vaccinated animals was tested against different influenza strains for the level of anti-HA (e.g. H1, H2, etc.) protective antibodies in the blood serum. A measured antibody titer of 1:20 is generally regarded as a positive vaccine response; 1:40 is generally associated with protection against influenza in humans. Mean HI titers for both the H1N1 and universal vaccine groups were measured to be significantly greater than 1:40 against 2009 H1N1 pandemic strains and seasonal H1N1 strains (ranging from 1:104 to 1:747). Moreover, the universal vaccine group also generated strong mean HI titers against the H3N2 strains (> 1:80). 

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