Cell Rep: Discover a new immune target for the flu vaccine! Broad-spectrum influenza vaccine is within reach!

24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at Cardiff University have discovered new markings hidden inside the flu virus. Researchers at the
School of Medicine worked with an international team of experts -- including collaborators in Moscow, Russia, and Melbourne, Australia -- to study how people's immune systems respond to new protein markers.
they first found "assisted" T cells, white blood cells that inhibit the function of the virus, that are activated in contact with the virus.
important, they found that these internal markers rarely change dissoced between strains, meaning they could provide a potential new target for the vaccine, which prevents all forms of influenza.
the World Health Organization estimates that as many as 650,000 respiratory deaths worldwide each year are linked to seasonal influenza.
picture source: Lead author Dr Alex Greenshields-Watson, from The University of Cardiff School of Medicine, said: "Unlike the current vaccine's main target external flu proteins, these internal proteins are highly conservative between different flu strains.
means that vaccines or therapies for these internal proteins may be common to common and emerging virus types.
We hope that in the future, this will reduce the need to produce seasonal vaccines -- based on flu strains that predict the likely nature of a given year.
"When an influenza virus infects a cell, some proteins inside the cell (which are critical to the function of the virus) are shredded and presented on the cell surface.
this effectively gives the body's auxiliary T cells a unique "window" into the infected cells, so that killer T-cells can destroy it, with the ultimate goal of removing infections from the body.
flu can easily alter its external protein, but internal proteins are common for many flu strains.
researchers believe that targeting these markers may be key to developing a universal vaccine.
in the study, scientists at Cardiff University were able to map the response of auxiliary T cells to specific internal proteins.
they found that many people share the same protein receptors on secondary T cells.
finally, using Diamond Light Source, the UK's synchrotron science device, the team was able to use bright light -- 10 billion times brighter than the sun -- to reveal the molecular basis of recognition. "These results are very interesting," said Professor Andrew Godkin, co-author of the
study.
we have shown that the immune system can see conservative areas of proteins inside the flu virus.
in addition, we have shown that these sequences are highly conservative in thousands of virus sequences.
this raises an interesting question: why can't we better protect ourselves from emerging flu strains and related viruses with the same sequence, which should trigger the memory response of our immune system.
we are focusing on this issue and hope that this will lead to better vaccine design in the future." "By looking at human responses, we have looked at the response of T cells to these conservative flu protein fragments and used advanced equipment to solve the atomic parsing structure of these fragments," said Dr. David Cole, co-author of the
.
this ultra-high resolution image really helps us understand how our bodies 'see' viral infections at the molecular level, potentially providing information for new treatment strategies.
I hope these insights will lead to new research that aids The Response of T cells to infection.
" findings were published in the journal Cell Reports.
() References: Alexander Greenshields-Watson et al. CD4-T Cells Recognize Conserved Influenza A Epitopes through Shared Patterns of V-Gene Usage and Plus Y Mes. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107885.