Every fall, many people will flood to health clinics to get vaccinated against the annual flu. However, effectiveness of the flu vaccine varies from year to year, causing many people to become frustrated with the vaccination process. The influenza virus rapidly mutates because it is a single-stranded RNA virus, which has proved to be one of the hardest obstacles to overcome for scientists who work to create the annual vaccine against new strains. However, a team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has recently published news of their work to create a universal flu vaccine. Theoretically, this vaccine would be more similar to other vaccines in that it is given in a series of shots throughout a person’s lifetime rather than once a year. This would hopefully provide stronger immunity against the flu.
Currently, the flu vaccine works by creating antibodies that detect proteins on influenza particles called hemagglutinin (HA) stalk. More specifically, the antibodies are formed in response to the “outermost ‘head’ region of the HA protein,” which has been hypothesized to be the region that causes mutates so rapidly. In contrast, this newly curated universal vaccine would work by directing its antibody response to the lower region of the HA proteins, a mechanism that would use mRNA molecules to synthesize HA-like proteins. So far, this new method has shown positive results but still needs to be tested through more clinical trials before commercializing the vaccine to the public, a process that could take quite some time. Nevertheless, efforts have already been made on animal models and will hopefully show the similar benefits in humans.
If interested, read the full article here: https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2018/august/candidate-for-universal-flu-vaccine-protects-against-multiple-strains-in-preclinical-study
- Jen Vu
No comments:
Post a Comment