Fig. 7: H7HA166-186 peptide immunization confers partial protection from lethal H7N9 infection.
a Schematic illustration of H7-HA166-186 peptide localization (shown in red) within the HA protein timer (gray). b Schematic timeline of peptide immunization protocol. Created with BioRender.com. c Serum binding analysis to H1, H3 and H7 HA proteins from mice immunized with H7HA166-186 peptide, OVA peptide and PBS. Data are shown as area under the curve (AUC) quantification of the ELISA curves. Representative of two independent experiments with 4–5 mice per group. Bars represent mean ± SEM, statistical analysis was performed using a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test; shown is only the difference between H7HA166-186 peptide vs. OVA groups. *p = 0.014, **p = 0.0012, ***p = 0.0005. d WB analysis of HA protein recognition from MDCK cells infected with H1N1, H3N2, or H7N9 viruses, using serum from H7-HA166-186 peptide-immunized mice. First antibody: serum from H7HA166-186 peptide-immunized mice, second antibody: anti-mouse IgG. e Graph showing Hemagglutination inhibition assay (HAI) titer of immunized serum against H1N1/H3N2/H7N9 viruses. Representative of two independent experiments with 4–5 mice per group. Bars represent mean ± SEM, statistical analysis was performed using a one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test; shown is only the difference between H7HA166-186 peptide vs. OVA groups. ****p < 0.0001; H1N1 and H3N2: **p = 0.003. f Weight loss and survival curves of mice immunized with H7HA166-186 peptide. Mice (n = 10 per group, two independent experiments) were infected with H7N1 (1 TCID50, lethal dose) at day 42, after being immunized three times with H7HA166-186 peptide (see b). ****p < 0.0001.
