Influenza vaccines

Abstract

Described herein are vaccines and the use of naked DNA and/or RNA encoding hemagglutinin (HA) from pandemic influenza, e.g., the 1918 H1N1 and/or the 1957 H2N2 and/or the 1968 H3N2 influenza A virus, as a vaccine component against present day and coming H1, H2, H3, H5, N1, N2 containing influenza A infections in humans and swine optionally with the naked DNA and/or RNA encoding Neuraminidase (NA) and/or matrix protein (M) and/or the nucleoprotein (NP) from pandemic influenza virus included. If the vaccine components are used as DNA or RNA vaccines with or without the corresponding protein, the codons can optionally be “humanized” using preferred codons from highly expressed mammalian genes and the administration of this DNA vaccine can be by saline or buffered saline injection of naked DNA or RNA, or injection of DNA plasmid or linear gene expressing DNA fragments coupled to particles. Addition of the matrix protein (M) and/or the nucleoprotein (NP) from the 1918 influenza strain is also disclosed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.