Disclosed herein are methods and nanoparticles suitable for use in reducing exacerbations in COPD patients. The methods and compositions advantageously reduce the incidence of hospitalization in COPD patients that occurs in response to environmental insults such as exposure to or infection by RSV. Dosages, formulations, and methods for preparing the vaccines and nanoparticles are also disclosed.

Modified influenza virus neuraminidases are described herein that improve viral replication, thus improving the yield of vaccine viruses. Expression of such modified neuraminidases by influenza virus may also stabilize co-expressed hemagglutinins so that the hemagglutinins do not undergo mutation or decrease the need for HA binding to cells.

The present disclosure relates to a cluster-based consensus approach for generating recombinant neuraminidase (NA) polypeptides. The disclosure further relates to influenza vaccine compositions comprising the recombinant NA polypeptides.

The present invention relates to a virus-like particle for preventing or treating toxoplasmosis, comprising influenza virus matrix protein 1; and surface antigen proteins comprising an inner membrane complex, Rhoptry protein 18 and Microneme protein 8 derived from Toxoplasma gondii, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same.

The present invention provides, among other things, a novel and improved method for generating mosaic influenza antigenic polypeptides including hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) polypeptides based on unique combination of epitope patterns that maximize exposure to epitopes present across multiple HA or NA sequences and therefore improved influenza strain coverage. In particular, the present invention provides engineered influenza B hemagglutinin (HA) polypeptides that are comprised of novel combinations of protective epitopes and antigenic regions from multiple influenza B viral strains. Such engineered HA polypeptides have improved properties over HA polypeptides developed through conventional approaches that rely on consensus alignments of viral sequences.

The present invention relates to the field of (vector) vaccines, and especially to an enhanced arrangement of nucleotide sequences for expressing a Paramyxoviridae virus containing an exogenous gene of interest. The present invention further concerns related expression cassettes and vectors, which are suitable to express genes of interest, especially antigen encoding sequences. The viral vectors of the present invention are useful for producing an immunogenic composition or vaccine.

The present invention relates to a mutated virus. Said virus can be an influenza virus of human or other animal origin. The present invention also relates to a method for preparing the mutated virus, the method comprising introducing UAG codons into positions upstream of the stop codons per se of one or more genes of a viral genome by reverse genetic techniques. The present invention further relates to uses of the mutated virus, for example, as a live attenuated vaccine, or in replication of controllable and safe virus models, and the like.

The present invention provides, among other things, a novel and improved method for generating mosaic influenza antigenic polypeptides including hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) polypeptides based on unique combination of epitope patterns that maximize exposure to epitopes present across multiple HA or NA sequences and therefore improved influenza strain coverage. In particular, the present invention provides engineered H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) polypeptides that are comprised of novel combinations of protective epitopes and antigenic regions from multiple H1N1 viral strains. Such engineered HA polypeptides have improved properties over HA polypeptides developed through conventional approaches that rely on consensus alignments of viral sequences.

Disclosed are a fusion peptide of CD4 helper T cell epitopes, a nucleic acid encoding the same and an immunogenic composition comprising the same. The epitope fusion peptide comprises a cytomegalovirus epitope and an influenza virus epitope. The epitope fusion peptide can substantially improve the level of cellular immune response to a target immunogen, particularly a weak immunogen, and is an effective means for overcoming the immune tolerance of immune system to an antigen, particularly to a tumor antigen or an infection-related antigen, and is suitable for efficiently enhancing the efficacy of vaccine.

This invention relates to chimeric virus-like particles (VLPs) assembled from a polypeptide comprising a papilloma p virus (PV) L1 protein or L1/L2 protein and a target peptide comprising a CD8+ T cell epitope derived from a human pathogen. This invention also relates to methods using the chimeric VLPs as antigen-specific redirectors of immune responses.