Nature: No more flu shots every year?

Dr.

"By identifying the antibody susceptibility sites shared by a large number of mutant influenza strains, we can design vaccines that are less affected by viral mutations

In a typical year, more than 20 million people in the United States were infected with influenza and 20,000 died

Researchers have designed a more versatile experimental flu vaccine that stimulates the body to produce antibodies against HA's hard-to-change stem, which stretches like a stem between the influenza virus particles and the HA head

In this new study, a collaborative team of scientists identified 358 different antibodies.

Many of the antibodies present in the blood of participants are known to recognize HA heads or stalks

The co-first authors of this manuscript - Julianna Han, a staff member of Ward's laboratory, and Jenna Guthmiller, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago - will This part of HA was named anchor, and further research began

"In order to enhance our protection against these highly mutated viruses, we need as many tools as possible," Han said

"The human immune system has the ability to produce antibodies against this epitope, so now it is only necessary to apply modern protein engineering methods to produce a vaccine that can induce a sufficient number of these antibodies," Guthmiller added

Researchers say that future iterations of improved general vaccines can produce anchored antibodies in a more targeted manner

Researchers are planning to study how to design a vaccine that most directly targets the HA anchor of different influenza strains in the future

Journal Reference :

1. Jenna J.