An international team of scientists have designed a new generation of universal flu vaccines to protect against future global pandemics that could kill millions.
The vaccine could give protection for up to 88% of known flu strains worldwide in a single shot, spelling the end of the winter flu season. The collaboration involving the universities of Lancaster, Aston and Complutense in Madrid have applied ground-breaking computational techniques to design the vaccine in a study published in the leading journal Bioinformatics.
The researchers have devised two universal vaccines;
- a USA-specific vaccine with coverage of 95% of known US influenza strains
- a universal vaccine with coverage of 88% of known flu strains globally
Dr Derek Gatherer of Lancaster University said: “Every year we have a round of flu vaccination, where we choose a recent strain of flu as the vaccine, hoping that it will protect against next year’s strains. We know this method is safe, and that it works reasonably well most of the time.
“However, sometimes it doesn’t work – as in the H3N2 vaccine failure in winter 2014-2015 – and even when it does it is immensely expensive and labour-intensive. Also, these yearly vaccines give us no protection at all against potential future pandemic flu.” Previous pandemics include the “Spanish flu” of 1918, and the two subsequent pandemics of 1957 and 1968, which led to millions of deaths.
Even today, the World Health Organisation says that annual flu epidemics are estimated to cause up to half a million deaths globally. Dr Gatherer said: “It doesn’t have to be this way. Based on our knowledge of the flu virus and the human immune system, we can use computers to design the components of a vaccine that gives much broader and longer-lasting protection.”
Dr Pedro Reche of Complutense University said: “A universal flu vaccine is potentially within reach. The components of this vaccine would be short flu virus fragments – called epitopes – that are already known to be recognized by the immune system. Our collaboration has found a way to select epitopes reaching full population coverage.
Dr Darren Flower of Aston University said: “Epitope-based vaccines aren’t new, but most reports have no experimental validation. We have turned the problem on its head and only use previously-tested epitopes. This allows us to get the best of both worlds, designing a vaccine with a very high likelihood of success.”
The team are now actively seeking partners in the pharmaceutical industry to synthesize their vaccine for a laboratory proof-of-principle test.
Learn more: Universal flu vaccine designed by scientists
The Latest on: Universal flu vaccine
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Universal flu vaccine” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Universal flu vaccine
- Vietnam sees one avian flu death, warns risk of bird flu spreading to humanson March 25, 2024 at 10:48 pm
A 21-year-old student in Vietnam has become the first person to die of avian flu in the country, according to media reports on Tuesday.
- Influenza Newson March 24, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Feb. 22, 2024 — First large-scale analysis of optimal timing for flu shots finds October is the best month for children to get vaccinated against influenza. Study of 800,000 pediatrician visits ...
- Universal Music Group NV UMGon March 24, 2024 at 5:00 pm
We sell different types of products and services to both investment professionals and individual investors. These products and services are usually sold through license agreements or subscriptions ...
- Innate Immune Evasion Strategies of Influenza Viruseson March 24, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Vaccination is the best means of controlling both seasonal and pandemic influenza outbreaks. No 'universal' influenza vaccine exists; thus, new seasonal vaccines must be developed annually.
- Some Neurological Conditions More Common In Flu Than Covid Patients, New Study Sayson March 21, 2024 at 11:45 am
More flu patients than COVID patients experience symptoms of six major neurological conditions in the year after their infection, according to the study.
- Swine Flu Newson March 20, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Universal Flu Vaccine Protects Against Variants of Both Influenza A and B Viruses, Researchers Find Aug. 25, 2022 — A new universal flu vaccine protects against diverse variants of both ...
- How Covid killed off a deadly strain of fluon March 14, 2024 at 2:11 am
Still, “the goal that everybody has in mind is having a universal influenza vaccine, where you don’t have to change it every year: something that elicits broadly cross-reactive immunity.” “We’re not ...
- How Covid killed off a deadly strain of fluon March 14, 2024 at 2:11 am
Still, “the goal that everybody has in mind is having a universal influenza vaccine, where you don’t have to change it every year: something that elicits broadly cross-reactive immunity.” ...
- New antibodies target 'dark side' of influenza virus proteinon February 29, 2024 at 4:00 pm
New universal flu vaccine offers broad protection against influenza A virus infections, researchers find Jul 1, 2022 Learning more about how flu strains evolved may help guide future vaccine ...
via Bing News