Health & Medicine
A Universal Flu Vaccine: Scientists Take One Step Closer with 2009 Pandemic
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Sep 24, 2013 08:46 AM EDT
It's that time of year again: flu season. Now, though, scientists are getting closer than ever to developing a universal vaccine. Using the 2009 pandemic as a natural experiment to study why some people seem to resist severe illness, researchers have taken the next step when it comes to creating such a vaccine.
Today's flu vaccines make the immune system produce antibodies that recognize structures on the surface of the virus to prevent infection with the most prevalent circulating strains. Yet these vaccines have to be changed yearly as new viruses with different surface structures evolve. Creating a vaccine that could, potentially, cope with the ever-evolving flu viruses could be a huge leap forward when it comes to protecting patients.
"New strains of flu are continuously emerging, some of which are deadly, and so the Holy Grail is to create a universal vaccine that would be effective against all strains of flu," said Ajit Lalvani, one of the researchers, in a news release.
In order to learn more about how to prevent the flu virus, researchers asked volunteers to donate blood samples just as the swine flu pandemic was getting underway in 2009. They then asked the participants to report any symptoms that they experienced over the next two flu seasons. In all, they recruited 342 volunteers to take part in the study.
It turns out that those who fell more severely ill with flu had fewer CD8 T cells in their blood. Those who caught the flu but had no symptoms or only had mild symptoms, in contrast, had more of these cells. Although experimental models in the past had suggested that T cells may protect against flu symptoms, this hadn't been tested until now.
"The immune system produces these CD8 T cells in response to usual seasonal flu," said Lalvani in a news release. "Unlike antibodies, they target the core of the virus, which doesn't change, even in new pandemic strains. The 2009 pandemic provided a unique natural experiment to test whether T cells could recognize, and protect us against, new strains that we haven't encountered before and to which we lack antibodies."
In fact, the findings suggest that by making the body produce more of this specific type of CD8 T cell, you can protect people against illness. This finding in particular could help develop a universal vaccine. In the future, scientists could potentially create a vaccine that could prevent people getting symptoms and transmitting the infection to others, which could help curb seasonal flu.
The findings are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
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First Posted: Sep 24, 2013 08:46 AM EDT
It's that time of year again: flu season. Now, though, scientists are getting closer than ever to developing a universal vaccine. Using the 2009 pandemic as a natural experiment to study why some people seem to resist severe illness, researchers have taken the next step when it comes to creating such a vaccine.
Today's flu vaccines make the immune system produce antibodies that recognize structures on the surface of the virus to prevent infection with the most prevalent circulating strains. Yet these vaccines have to be changed yearly as new viruses with different surface structures evolve. Creating a vaccine that could, potentially, cope with the ever-evolving flu viruses could be a huge leap forward when it comes to protecting patients.
"New strains of flu are continuously emerging, some of which are deadly, and so the Holy Grail is to create a universal vaccine that would be effective against all strains of flu," said Ajit Lalvani, one of the researchers, in a news release.
In order to learn more about how to prevent the flu virus, researchers asked volunteers to donate blood samples just as the swine flu pandemic was getting underway in 2009. They then asked the participants to report any symptoms that they experienced over the next two flu seasons. In all, they recruited 342 volunteers to take part in the study.
It turns out that those who fell more severely ill with flu had fewer CD8 T cells in their blood. Those who caught the flu but had no symptoms or only had mild symptoms, in contrast, had more of these cells. Although experimental models in the past had suggested that T cells may protect against flu symptoms, this hadn't been tested until now.
"The immune system produces these CD8 T cells in response to usual seasonal flu," said Lalvani in a news release. "Unlike antibodies, they target the core of the virus, which doesn't change, even in new pandemic strains. The 2009 pandemic provided a unique natural experiment to test whether T cells could recognize, and protect us against, new strains that we haven't encountered before and to which we lack antibodies."
In fact, the findings suggest that by making the body produce more of this specific type of CD8 T cell, you can protect people against illness. This finding in particular could help develop a universal vaccine. In the future, scientists could potentially create a vaccine that could prevent people getting symptoms and transmitting the infection to others, which could help curb seasonal flu.
The findings are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone