Near real-time data on the human neutralizing antibody landscape to influenza virus in summer of 2026 shows antigenic advance of H3N2 subclade K region D mutants and H1N1 D.3.1.1 Sa mutants
- 1Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Abstract
Human seasonal influenza evolves rapidly, necessitating twice yearly decisions about whether to update the strains in the vaccine. To help inform this decision, we have been using high-throughput sequencing-based neutralization assays to make twice yearly measurements of how recent human sera neutralize current human H3N2 and H1N1 strains. Here we provide the third installment in this series of measurements by reporting 52,268 titers representing neutralization of 148 viral strains by 355 human sera collected between April and August of 2026. Our measurements show that new H3N2 subclade K strains with mutations in antigenic region D and new H1N1 subclade D.3.1.1 strains with mutations in antigenic region Sa (such as G155E) have reduced neutralization by human sera, with notable heterogeneity in the impact of some of these mutations across sera from different individuals. This paper is accompanied by an interactive summary (https://jbloomlab.github.io/flu-seqneut-2026/summary.html) that enables detailed exploration of the results, and all titer data are publicly available for further analysis to aid vaccine antigen selection and studies of viral evolution.
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BibTeX
@misc{kikawa2026near,
title = {{Near real-time data on the human neutralizing antibody landscape to influenza virus in summer of 2026 shows antigenic advance of H3N2 subclade K region D mutants and H1N1 D.3.1.1 Sa mutants}},
author = {C. Kikawa and A. Butler and J. Huddleston and S. A. Turner and H. Peck and J. A. Englund and K. Lacombe and M. Busch and M. C. Lanteri and M. Stone and B. Spencer and A. L. Greninger and D. J. Smith and S. Wallace and H. S. Marshall and S. Tosif and S. E. Hensley and I. G. Barr and J. D. Bloom},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.15.751855},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.751855v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Near real-time data on the human neutralizing antibody landscape to influenza virus in summer of 2026 shows antigenic advance of H3N2 subclade K region D mutants and H1N1 D.3.1.1 Sa mutants
AU - C. Kikawa
AU - A. Butler
AU - J. Huddleston
AU - S. A. Turner
AU - H. Peck
AU - J. A. Englund
AU - K. Lacombe
AU - M. Busch
AU - M. C. Lanteri
AU - M. Stone
AU - B. Spencer
AU - A. L. Greninger
AU - D. J. Smith
AU - S. Wallace
AU - H. S. Marshall
AU - S. Tosif
AU - S. E. Hensley
AU - I. G. Barr
AU - J. D. Bloom
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.15.751855
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.15.751855v1
AB - Human seasonal influenza evolves rapidly, necessitating twice yearly decisions about whether to update the strains in the vaccine. To help inform this decision, we have been using high-throughput sequencing-based neutralization assays to make twice yearly measurements of how recent human sera neutralize current human H3N2 and H1N1 strains. Here we provide the third installment in this series of measurements by reporting 52,268 titers representing neutralization of 148 viral strains by 355 human sera collected between April and August of 2026. Our measurements show that new H3N2 subclade K strains with mutations in antigenic region D and new H1N1 subclade D.3.1.1 strains with mutations in antigenic region Sa (such as G155E) have reduced neutralization by human sera, with notable heterogeneity in the impact of some of these mutations across sera from different individuals. This paper is accompanied by an interactive summary (https://jbloomlab.github.io/flu-seqneut-2026/summary.html) that enables detailed exploration of the results, and all titer data are publicly available for further analysis to aid vaccine antigen selection and studies of viral evolution.
ER -