Insect cells provide alternative technique for swine flu vaccine production

Scientists in Vienna have developed a new technique for producing swine flu vaccines based on insect cells. The research, published in the UK's Biotechnology Journal, reveals how influenza vaccines can be produced more quickly than through the traditional egg-based method.

Traditional influenza vaccines, which are produced in embryonated chicken eggs, can be manufactured in the quantities needed for seasonal strains of influenza, yet because of limited egg supply this method may be insufficient in a pandemic.

"Recent outbreaks of influenza highlight the importance of a rapid and sufficient vaccine supply for pandemic and inter pandemic strains," said co-author Florian Krammer from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Science in Vienna. "However, classical manufacturing methods for vaccines fail to satisfy this demand."

The Austrian team turned to insect cell-based technology to create recombinant influenza virus-like particles (VLPs), which resemble virus particles but lack the viral nucleic acid, so they are not infectious.

The team took just ten weeks to produce pandemic H1N1 influenza VLPs for immunological study in mice.

Using insect cells also bypasses the disadvantages of egg-based production, such as limited capacity, allergic reactions to egg proteins and biosafety issues.

"Our work demonstrates that recombinant influenza virus-like particles are a very fast, safe and efficient alternative to conventional influenza vaccines and represents a significant new approach for newly emerging influenza strains like swine-origin H1N1 or H5N1," added Krammer.