Rodent of the Week: A universal flu vaccine?

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Influenza kills about a quarter-million people worldwide each year. Though flu vaccines are created each year to protect against a few specific strains of the flu, that approach is only partially successful in reducing transmission. Now, however, researchers have devised a strategy that would target multiple strains of seasonal and pandemic flu.

The federally funded study, reported this week in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, identifies a small group of lab-made proteins -- human monoclonal antibodies -- that protected mice against deadly doses of a broad range of influenza A viruses, including the H5N1 avian flu and seasonal H1N1 viruses. After illness or vaccination, the body normally produces antibodies to protect against another flu attack, but these antibodies only protect against the same strain that caused the first infection. The new approach could work against a wide range of flu strains. The researchers selected antibodies against an influenza protein called hemagglutinin. This protein binds the virus to the host cell and allows the virus to enter the cell. But the antibodies tested prevented viral fusion by recognizing a region of hemagglutinin that is not as visible to the immune system and doesn’t have much variability between strains. Using this approach, the antibodies were able to bind to eight of the 16 existing types of influenza hemagglutinin tested.

‘This is an elegant research finding that holds considerable promise for further development into a medical tool to treat and prevent seasonal as well as pandemic influenza,’ said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a news release. ‘In the event of an influenza pandemic, human monoclonal antibodies could be an important adjunct to antiviral drugs to contain the outbreak until a vaccine becomes available.’

Large quantities of monoclonal antibodies can be made quickly, which could help in the treatment of people with impaired immunity and are thus at high risk for complications of the flu. The findings could also help vaccine developers find a more effective spot on the flu protein to target. Researchers plan to test the antibodies in ferrets next. It would take several more years, however, to test the antibodies in humans and develop a licensed product. The study was conducted by scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

-- Shari Roan