Coming soon – universal flu vaccine, effective for life

September 23, 2018 5:10:23 am

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Vaccine, Influenza vaccine, Universal flu vaccine, Research — The new vaccine would provide lifelong protection against flu

The new vaccine will be effective for lifetime, unlike current ones, which have to be taken every year

Each year thousands of people across the world get down with flu. In some cases children or senior citizens are so badly struck with the disease that they have to be admitted to hospitals for treatment.

Although, there are flu vaccines available, but these vaccinations have to be taken each year before the onset of flu season. This is because the strain of influenza develops and changes each year, meaning the vaccine you took last year may not be effective this year.

This means researchers can now create a universal vaccine against the flu. This approach could then later be used on other viruses such as HIV

After years of research, scientists from the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford have discovered a way to create a universal vaccine.

The study, published in Nature Communications, said that a universal vaccine could be created, which once administered would provide lifelong protection against flu or influenza.

The scientists theorized that parts of the virus targeted by the immune system are limited in variability and act as constraints on the evolution of the virus. By identifying the location of these regions of limited variability, the team has shown that such locations are targeted naturally by the immune system and through vaccination studies has shown that regions of influenza viruses that circulated in 2006 and 1977 were able to protect against infection with an influenza virus that last circulated in 1934.

This means researchers can now create a universal vaccine against the flu. According to the scientists this approach could then later be used on other viruses such as HIV and even to protect against the common cold.

“The integrated approach to vaccine design that we have applied to flu has the potential to be applied to other previously intractable pathogens and could revolutionize the way we develop vaccines,” said Dr Craig Thompson from the University of Oxford.