[Correspondence] Can defective interfering RNAs affect the live attenuated influenza vaccine?

In their thoughtful Personal View, Anika Singanayagam and colleagues1 raise several important questions relating to the apparent loss of efficacy of the live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) vaccine. One factor not considered by the authors is the presence, in batches of the Fluenz Tetra vaccine (MedImmune, Nijmegen, Netherlands; AstraZeneca, Luton, UK) of substantial amounts of small RNAs derived from the genomes of both the influenza A and influenza B components of the vaccine itself.2 If the vaccine was composed only of infectious virus, one would expect to see only the eight full-length influenza segments of the viral A and B genomes.

Source: The Lancet Infectious Diseases - November 23, 2017 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Nigel J Dimmock, Andrew J Easton Tags: Correspondence Source Type: research