Cloning recombinant pHW2000 vector carrying the HA gene for preparation of the primary influenza A/H5N1 vaccine strain

Influenza A/H5N1 virus evolves rapidly and generate new variants, therefore it is essential to develop effective vaccines against the currently circulating influenza strains. Among clades and subclades of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses circulating in Vietnam, H5N1 clade 1.1 and clade 2.3.2.1c possess genetic relationships to many strains of influenza; thus they are suggested to be used for producing vaccines against avian influenza. In this article, two HA gene segments of two types of A/H5N1 influenza clade have been designed: HA clade 1.1 gene consists 1825 nucleotides encoding 565 amino acids, HA clade 2.3.2.1c gene consists 1822 nucleotides, encoding 564 amino acids. Most importantly, nucleotide sequence of the pathogenic region of HA was removed. Each of the two HA segments corresponding to the two clades were successfully cloned into pHW2000 vector and will be used as a candidate for production of avian influenza vaccines using reverse genetics technique.