A mRNA vaccine was created against every 20 recognized influenza subtypes. First tests on animals revealed that the vaccine decreased symptoms of illness and protected them from death even though the animals had been exposed to influenza viruses not associated with the one used to create the vaccine.
The results indicate the vaccine might provide wide protection from all flu strains, including the lethal ones. This might be an extremely effective tool in our healthcare arsenal, particularly given the present flu epidemic as well as the deaths related to pandemics.
“The concept here’s having a vaccine which is going to give individuals a baseline degree of immune memory to various flu strains, so there’ll be much less death and disease if the next flu pandemic occurs,” study senior author Dr Scott Hensley, a professor in of Microbiology at in the Perelman School of Medicine, said in a statement.
The vaccine utilizes the same mRNA technology which has been successfully shown in COVID-19 vaccines. It utilizes immunogens: An antigen induces the immune reaction. The RNA possesses the code associated with a crucial (but harmless) flu protein found among the eighteen types of Influenza A viruses as well as the 2 types of Influenza B. Once injected, cells in the area create the protein and also the immune system thinks it’s in attack, creating certain antibodies.
Thus, when a flu virus attacks a person, the immune system is going to be far more ready to react immediately. The flu vaccine isn’t a sterilizing one – it does not prevent you from getting the flu again. Rather, it primes your body so that in case you do get the flu, it will be much less serious.
“It is similar to first generation SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines, that had been aimed at the first Wuhan strain of coronavirus,” said Hensley. “Against later variants including Omicron, these original vaccines didn’t completely block viral infections, though they continue to offer long lasting protection against serious illness and death,” the report stated.
The team is prepared to try this out in human beings. Today they are preparing human clinical trials to find out the way the vaccine works in humans. If successful, this vaccine might be used to reduce the spread of the danger and the flu to everybody, from kids to old people.
“We feel this vaccine might considerably lessen the chances of ever having a serious flu infection,” Hensley said.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
