Immunoprophylactic strategies against respiratory influenza virus infection

The objective of this report is to evaluate the prophylactic efficacy of li posome-mediated immunotherapy for prevention of respiratory influenza virus infection in mice. Antiviral antibody. interferon-gamma and poly (ICLC) we re encapsulated in liposomes and they were evaluated for their ability to i nduce protective immunity against lethal influenza infection. Passive immun ization using liposome-encapsulated antiviral antibody was found to offer c omplete protection against the virus challenge. However, this pretreatment must be administered within 24 h prior to virus challenge to be protective. Pretreatment with liposome-encapsulated interferon-gamma was found to stim ulate cellular immune responses, but the protection is partial. Immunoproph ylaxis using liposome-encapsulated double-stranded (ds) RNA poly (ICLC) pro vided complete and longer-lasting protection against influenza infection. T hese results suggest liposome-mediated immunoprophylactic approaches are ef fective in the prevention of respiratory influenza virus infection. Crown C opyright (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.