An Egg-Derived Sulfated <i>N</i> -Acetyllactosamine Glycan Is an Antigenic Decoy of Influenza Virus Vaccines
Jenna J. Guthmiller, Henry A. Utset, Carole Henry, Lei Li, Nai‐Ying Zheng, Weina Sun, Marcos C. Vieira, Seth J. Zost, Min Huang, Scott E. Hensley, Sarah Cobey, Peter Palese, Patrick C. Wilson
Abstract
-acetyllactosamine (LacNAc). Half of subjects that received an egg-grown vaccine mounted an antibody response against this egg-derived antigen. Egg-binding monoclonal antibodies specifically bind viruses grown in eggs, but not viruses grown in other chicken-derived cells, suggesting that only egg-grown vaccines can induce antiegg antibodies. Notably, antibodies against the egg antigen utilized a restricted antibody repertoire and possessed features of natural antibodies, as most antibodies were IgM and had a simple heavy-chain complementarity-determining region 3. By analyzing a public data set of influenza virus vaccine-induced plasmablasts, we discovered egg-binding public clonotypes that were shared across studies. Together, this study shows that egg-grown vaccines can induce antibodies against an egg-associated glycan, which may divert the host immune response away from protective epitopes.