New influenza vaccine to protect against all influenza viruses – the practice of healing

Comprehensive influenza vaccine for comprehensive protection

A US research team presents a new influenza vaccine that aims to provide more comprehensive protection against influenza viruses. According to a recent study, a universal vaccine has the potential to significantly improve immune protection against influenza.

Researchers from Georgia State University report in the journal “biomaterialsA new influenza vaccine designed to induce a broad immune response against influenza viruses of different strains, thus providing sustainable immune protection against influenza.

Influenza B is responsible for a quarter of all clinical infections

According to the research team, type B influenza viruses were responsible for about a quarter of all infectious diseases that had to be treated in hospital in the decades before SARS-CoV-2 emerged.

Currently available influenza vaccines must be adapted to the prevalent strains of the virus each year, and therefore their efficacy varies. Therefore, a vaccine that is equally effective against all influenza viruses will be of great public health importance.

Influenza vaccines target the altered parts of the virus

As the Georgia State University working group explains, previous influenza vaccines have targeted an often-evolving part of the influenza virus called head HA. For this reason, the seasonal influenza vaccine must be constantly reformulated.

To overcome this limitation, the team has now developed a vaccine that uses the preserved portion of the virus to create large, broad cross-protection against different influenza strains.

The possibility of obtaining a universal vaccine against influenza

The study’s lead author, Dr. Baozhong Wang How does the vaccine work.

“We have found that layered protein nanoparticles with structurally stable antigens have the potential to yield a universal influenza vaccine with improved immune protection and range,” confirms the scientist.

The nanoparticle vaccine has already been successfully tested in human and mouse cell cultures. Either way, the vaccination has proven to be safe, biocompatible, biodegradable, and highly immunogenic.

Nanoparticle vaccine against influenza A and B in the planning

“Our next goal is to combine influenza A nanoparticles from our previous study with influenza B nanoparticles produced and tested here to produce a universal multivalent influenza nanoparticle vaccine against both influenza A and influenza B.” Wang describes the next steps. (FP)