Jose L Martínez, Nicholas Lemus, Tsoi Ying Lai, Mitali Mishra, Irene González-Domínguez, Eduard Puente-Massaguer, Madhumathi Loganathan, Benjamin Francis, Marie I Samanovic, Florian Krammer, Mark J Mulligan, Viviana Simon, Peter Palese, Weina Sun
The head domain of the hemagglutinin of influenza viruses plays a dominant role in the antibody response due to the presence of immunodominant antigenic sites that are the main targets of host neutralizing antibodies. For the H1 hemagglutinin, five major antigenic sites defined as Sa, Sb, Ca1, Ca2, and Cb have been described. Although previous studies have focused on defining the hierarchy of the antigenic sites of the hemagglutinin in different human cohorts, it is still unclear if the immunodominance profile of the antigenic sites might change with the antibody levels of individuals or if other demographic factors (such as exposure history, sex, or age) could also influence the importance of the antigenic sites...
April 15, 2024: Vaccine