A Comparative Analysis of Traditional and Novel Influenza Vaccine Platforms

Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory disease with a high incidence and mutation rate, which continues to threaten public health. Although traditional vaccines have played an important role in influenza prevention and control, their protective effects are prone to fluctuations due to the drift of viral antigens. In recent years, the rise of new vaccine platforms such as mRNA vaccines and viral vector vaccines has provided new ideas for the rapid update and broad-spectrum protection of influenza vaccines. However, there is currently a lack of systematic comparison and comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of different vaccine platforms in influenza prevention and control. This article reviews the mechanism of action, application potential, experimental basis and practical challenges of inactivated vaccines, protein subunit vaccines, mRNA vaccines and viral vector vaccines, systematically sorts out the differences between various vaccines in inducing humoral immunity and cellular immunity, and analyzes their performance in antigen drift response, vaccine broad spectrum and adaptability. By comparison, it can be seen that the new vaccine platform has obvious advantages in broad spectrum and flexibility. This study provides a theoretical basis for the optimal design and platform selection of future influenza vaccines, and also points out that there are still research gaps in the verification of immune persistence and fair accessibility of vaccines. In the future, we can further explore the multi-platform joint strategy and the development direction of broad-spectrum vaccines targeting conservative antigens.