Scientists produce vaccine that protected rats against influenza viruses

Pa new flu vaccine is coming. A group of scientists produced in the United States a nanoparticle vaccine that protected rats from three strains of the flu virus. This result can pave 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 vaccinate every year“, justified one of the authors of the paper, Fei Wen, quoted in a statement released today by the U.S. University of Michigan.

The team directed research into a protein from the flu virus that changes genetically more slowly than the main proteins that the human body recognizes in disabled influenza viruses (viruses used in vaccine production and that do not cause infection, designed to “teach” the immune system to recognize the real virus and generate antibodies).

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According to the authors of the study, current influenza 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 its effectiveness is not total, ranging from 30% to 60%.

Because influenza viruses are constantly changing, immunity from a common vaccine is not lasting.

The vaccine that, according to scientists, has been successfully administered to rats is made of microscopic particles that are approximately the same size and shape as flu viruses, but are surrounded by the M2 protein, a flu virus protein that is less likely to change rapidly, unlike hemagglutinin, protein of the same virus prone to genetic mutations that cover 80% of its surface and the main detected by the human immune system.

In the production of this vaccine, researchers used genetically modified baker yeast instead of egg to obtain large amounts of M2 protein and, in one month, to have a flu vaccine.

The next step in the investigation will be to evaluate how long the rats were immune to the flu.

The results released today in a press release from the University of Michigan were presented at a conference of the American Chemical Society.