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Towards A Universal Flu Vaccine

 

 

 

# 4991

 

 

It’s the Holy Grail of flu researchers; a universal flu shot that could protect against a wide range of flu viruses, and give protection that would last for years.

 

And based on research published yesterday in PNAS, researchers are inching slowly closer to that goal. 

 

The study is dauntingly titled:

 

Vaccination with a synthetic peptide from the influenza virus hemagglutinin provides protection against distinct viral subtypes

  1. Taia T. Wang, Gene S. Tan, Rong Hai, Natalie Pica, Lily Ngai,Damian C. Ekiert, Ian A. Wilson,Adolfo García-Sastre, Thomas M. Moran, and Peter Palese

 

And the Abstract – which describes the testing of a synthetic peptide that binds to the stalk of a cross-variety of influenza hemagglutinins in mice – is probably for nonscientists –  a bit of tough sledding.

 

Luckily, we’ve a pair of articles available online that shed a good deal more light on the subject, and in language that is easier to understand.

 

First, from Scientific American, we’ve an interview with co-author Peter Palese –  a familiar name in influenza research - and Professor of microbiology and head of the Department of Microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

 

How Close Is a Universal Influenza Vaccine That Could Provide Lifelong Immunity with One Shot?

The rapidly mutating strains of flu virus have so far thwarted efforts to develop a vaccine that could knock out all varieties with a single injection, but recent advances suggest a synthetic solution. The head of Mount Sinai School of Medicine's microbiology department explains

 

Second, an article by Lauren Gravitz at MIT’s Technology Review, with comments by such notables as Robert Webster, Gary Nabel at NIH, and Terrance Tumpey at the CDC  titled:

 

A Long-lasting Universal Flu Vaccine

Advance could eliminate the need for shots each year for evolving strains.

By Lauren Gravitz

 

Both are good reads.

 

The short version, however, is that researchers have created a synthetic peptide which binds to a slow-to-mutate portion of the viral hemagglutinin that is common across many strains of influenza.

 

This experimental vaccine produced (in mice, at least) varying immune responses against the H1N1, H5N1, and H3N2 viruses . . . with protection that ranged from mild to robust.

 

 

But as the saying goes, if you are sick . . . and you are a mouse . . . there’s a lot that modern science can do for you.

 

What works in mice, however, doesn’t always translate into a viable treatment for humans.  

 

The levels of protection achieved from this vaccine apparently weren’t potent enough  across all subtypes to serve as a stand-alone universal vaccine, but this work is still in its early stages.

 

And even if this technique eventually proves efficacious in humans, it is a long road from testing it on lab mice to having a human-approved drug.

 

But this is real progress, offers a tantalizing avenue for further research,  and gives hope to the idea that someday a universal vaccine might become a reality.

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Influenza

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