Factors such as age and health of an individual, as well the level of similarity between the flu virus and the flu vaccine can play a role in how well an influenza vaccine works. But due to frequent mutations of the HA, flu vaccines have to be updated seasonally, so that their effectiveness is certain. But because the head of the HA mutates so rapidly, seasonal flu vaccines must be continually re-formulated to ensure they are effective. Public Health London even claimed that the flu vaccine, poor in its protective qualities, would be behind many flu-related deaths. “Ultimately, the hope is to get a vaccine that will cover a pandemic virus”.
Current flu vaccines focus only on the mutating part of the virus, thus forcing the need for a new flu shot each year.
“This is an exciting development, but the new vaccines now need to be tested in clinical trials to see how well they work in humans”, said Prof Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford. These particles stimulated the immune system to make antibodies against flu viruses. The H5N1 virus targeted and killed approximately 400 people since 2003, who had caught the flu virus from infected, domesticated fowl.
However a study in the journal Nature Medicine, led by Gary Nabel and Barney Graham of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, also showed that the new vaccine protected immunised ferrets against H5N1.
It will take between three and five years to carry out further development and testing before the vaccine could be tried on human volunteers, he added. The researchers developed a molecule called an immunogen that imitates the structure of the protein, helping the body to recognize and be able to attack a fundamental component of the flu virus.
Writing in the journal Science , the team describes how injections of one formulation of the vaccine protected mice from H5N1 bird flu and the H1N1 swine flu that emerged in 2009.
A working universal influenza vaccine is still a long way off, the scientists note.
“Influenza remains one of the most serious public health challenges, and new therapeutic and preventative solutions are needed.”
Scientists have taken a step closer to developing a single influenza vaccination that can protect against any form of the fast changing and unsafe disease. Researchers measured influenza vaccine protection declines using data from 1,720 individuals throughout the course of four flu seasons, from the 2010-2011 season through the 2013-2014 season.