# High-density flagellin-displayed virus-like particle for universal influenza vaccine development'

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND · 2022 · $236,250

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Current influenza vaccines mainly induce strain-specific protection. Universal influenza vaccines are under
active development to induce broad cross-protection. Extracellular ectodomain of matrix protein 2 (M2e) and
intracellular nucleoprotein (NP) are highly conserved across viral strains and are attractive targets in universal
influenza vaccine development. Various preclinical and clinical studies support the induction of anti-M2e
antibodies and anti-NP cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to induce broad cross-protective immunity. Due to the
low immunogenicity of M2e and NP, highly immunogenic vaccine carriers are demanded to present these
conserved vaccine antigens to induce potent cross-reactive immune responses. This proposal explores our
recently developed high-density flagellin-displayed hepatitis b core (HBc) virus-like particles (VLPs) (FH VLPs)
in combination with a clinical CpG adjuvant (FHc VLPs) for universal influenza vaccine development. FH VLPs
show better immunogenicity and safety than FljB and more versatility than HBc VLPs for vaccine development.
Furthermore, a clinical CpG adjuvant will be encapsulated into the core of FH VLPs to potentiate vaccine-
induced humoral immune responses and at the same time to induce potent CTL responses. This proposal
prepares M2e and NP-displayed FHc VLP-based universal influenza vaccines (Specific aim 1) and explore
their safety, immunogenicity, and cross-protective efficacy in murine models (Specific aim 2). This proposal is
in response to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)'s call for Advancing Research
Needed to Develop a Universal Influenza Vaccine (PA-18-858).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10427432
- **Project number:** 5R21AI156510-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
- **Principal Investigator:** Xinyuan Chen
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $236,250
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-06-11 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10427432

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10427432, High-density flagellin-displayed virus-like particle for universal influenza vaccine development' (5R21AI156510-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10427432. Licensed CC0.

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