Scientists produce vaccine that protects rats against three strains of the flu virus Scientists in the United States produced a nanoparticle vaccine that protected rats against three strains of the flu virus, a result that may open the way for a more effective human vaccine. "Our goal is to develop …
Scientists produce vaccine that protects rats against three strains of the flu virus
Scientists in the United States produced a nanoparticle vaccine that protected rats against three strains of the flu virus, a result that may open the way for a more effective human vaccine.
"Our goal is to develop a more effective and widely protective flu vaccine, so that a person does not have to get vaccinated every year," justified one of the authors of the work, Fei Wen, cited in a statement released yesterday by the University of Michigan.
The team directed the research towards a protein of the flu virus that mutates genetically slower than the main proteins that the human body recognizes in inactivated flu viruses (viruses used in vaccine production and which do not cause infection, intended to 'teach' the immune system to recognize the real virus and generate antibodies).
According to the authors of the study, current flu vaccines include a mixture of three or four variants of the virus to have the same level of protection as the vaccine generated in the laboratory, and yet their effectiveness is not total, oscillating between 30% and 60%.
Since the flu viruses are constantly changing, the immunity caused by a common vaccine is not lasting.
The vaccine that, according to the scientists, was successfully administered to rats is made of microscopic particles that have approximately the same size and shape as the flu virus, but are wrapped in the M2 protein, a protein of the flu virus that is less likely to change quickly, unlike hemagglutinin, a protein of the same virus prone to genetic mutations that covers 80% of its surface and is the main one detected by the human immune system.
In the production of this vaccine, the researchers used, instead of egg, genetically modified baker's yeast to obtain large quantities of the M2 protein and, in a month, have a flu vaccine.
The next step of the research will be to evaluate for how long the rats remained immune to the flu.
The results released in a statement by the University of Michigan were presented at a conference of the American Chemical Society.
