N-Glycosylation of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin Impacts Immunogenicity

Hemagglutinin (HA) is the most abundant glycoprotein on the surface of the influenza virus and represents a major virulence factor. Most vaccines against influenza target HA to elicit protective immunity. Influenza vaccine manufacturing using mammalian cell lines represents a promising alternative to conventional virus propagation in embryonated chicken eggs. Besides virus strain and subtype, also the host cell line used for influenza virus production determines HA N-glycosylation. Due to an increasing demand for cell-line based influenza vaccines it is of special interest in which way differential protein glycosylation affects virus immunogenicity. [...]