American and Dutch researchers reported over the weekend that they are now one step closer towards the development of a universal flu vaccine that would be effective against all strains of influenza, according to Telegraph Medical Correspondent Stephen Adams.
ҬThe vaccination, which is being jointly developed by the California-based Scripps Research Institute and Crucell Holland BV, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in the Netherlands, is the topic of a paper published in the journal Science Express on Thursday.
“¨”Annually changing flu vaccines with their hit-and-miss effectiveness may soon give way to a single, near-universal flu vaccine,” The Scripps Research Institute said in a July 7 press release, noting that the study’s authors “describe an antibody that, in animal tests, can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses, including seasonal and potentially pandemic strains.”
“¨”The finding”¦ shows the influenza subtypes neutralized with the new antibody include H3N2, strains of which killed an estimated one million people in Asia in the late 1960s,” they added. “A universal flu vaccine, capable of working against all strains, would save lives and money by eliminating the need for the annual jab.”
“¨According to Adams, the scientists hope to combine a new antibody (CR8020) with one discovered approximately two years ago (CR6261), which they believe will protect individuals against “the vast majority” of flu strains.
“¨Furthermore, not only would it prevent people from contracting the ailment, but would also be effective in neutralizing it in those already infected with influenza–which, Adams says, would be “extremely useful in a situation like the swine flu pandemic of 2009.”
“¨The antibodies work by attaching themselves to unchanging locations on the outside of flu cells that contain proteins known as mushroom-shaped hemagglutinin (HA) proteins, which tend to attract the body’s immune system.
“¨An injection of CR6261 “could prevent or cure an otherwise-lethal infection by about half of flu viruses, including H1 viruses such as H1N1, strains of which caused deadly global pandemics in 1918 and 2009,” the Scripps Research Institute researchers said.
“¨Likewise, the newly discovered CR8020 “powerfully neutralizes a range of human-affecting flu viruses in lab-dish tests and in mice,” including “H3 and H7, two subtypes of great concern for human health that have already caused a pandemic (H3) or sporadic human infections (H7),” they reported.
“¨According to Scripps, Crucell is close to beginning early clinical trials on CR6261 on human volunteers, and plans to eventually conduct similar trials of CR8020. Provided those two trials are successful, the researchers note that the two antibodies could be combined and used in what they refer to as a “passive immunotherapy” approach to treatment.
“¨”This would mainly be useful as a fast-acting therapy against epidemic or pandemic influenza viruses,” Ian Wilson, a member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research and senior author of the most recent paper, said in a statement. “The ultimate goal is an active vaccine that elicits a robust, long-term antibody response against those vulnerable epitopes; but developing that is going to be a challenging task.”
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