Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Mutants Transmissible by Air Are Susceptible to Human and Animal Neutralizing Antibodies

A laboratory-generated reassortant H5 hemagglutinin (HA)/influenza A(H1N1) strain containing 4 mutations in influenza A(H5N1) HA has become transmissible by air among mammals. Here, we constructed 15 influenza A(H5N1) pseudoviruses containing a single mutation or a combination of mutations and showed that the pseudoviruses were susceptible to neutralizing antibodies from patients with influenza A (H5N1) infection and from mice immunized with a vaccine containing the conserved HA1 sequence of influenza A (H5N1). These results indicate that antibodies in patients currently infected by influenza A(H5N1) and antibodies induced by vaccines containing conserved sequences in HA1 of wild-type influenza A(H5N1) are highly effective in cross-neutralizing future influenza A(H5N1) mutants with airborne transmissibility, suggesting that human influenza pandemics caused by these influenza A(H5N1) variants can be prevented.