Development of New Vaccine－New Method to Prepare Artificial Membrane Vaccine using Inter-Membrane Protein Transfer

Influenza is one of the common infectious diseases caused by influenza virus. Vaccines are the most effective means to fight infectious diseases. While these vaccines are quite effective in young adults, however, they are less for the above high risk group. A currently used influenza vaccine contains aluminum hydroxide as an adjuvant, which sometimes induces the production of IgE antibodies causing an allergic reaction. In order to overcome the drawbacks, artificial membrane vaccines or liposome vaccines have been developed. Liposomes are known to be effective immunoadjuvants. On the other hand, various membrane proteins, including matrix membrane proteins, have been reported to be spontaneously transferrable from living cell membranes to artificial membranes (liposomes). In this article, we introduced a new method to prepare the artificial membrane vaccine, "influenza virosomes", using inter-membrane protein transfer, and discussed the immunreactivity of the virosomes. We concluded that the application of inter-membrane protein transfer technique is a useful method for the preparation of the artificial membrane vaccine, virosomes. The virosomes showed high immunoreactivity especially with MDP (muramyldipeptide) derivatives as an adjuvant or booster treatment.