World’s first universal flu vaccine developed

Scientists have developed two new generation of universal flu vaccines to protect against potential influenza pandemics that could kill millions.

Scientists have developed two new generation of universal flu vaccines to protect against potential influenza pandemics that could kill millions.

Unlike current vaccines that protect against certain strains, the new vaccine gives protection for up to 88% of known flu strains worldwide in a single shot. A second US-specific vaccine covers 95% of known US influenza strains.

Seasonal influenza is an acute viral infection that spreads easily from person to person. Influenza viruses are classified into subtypes according to the combinations of various virus surface proteins.

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Among many subtypes of influenza A viruses, influenza A(H1N1) and A(H3N2) subtypes are currently circulating among humans. Antiviral drugs are used to treat influenza, but viruses can develop resistance to the drugs.

Annual flu epidemics cause up to half a million deaths globally, estimates the World Health Organisation.

Every year, we have a round of flu vaccination, where we choose a recent strain of flu as the vaccine and hope that it will protect against next year’s strains,” Dr Derek Gatherer of Lancaster University, which collaborated with universities of Aston and Complutense in Madrid to use computational techniques to design the vaccine in a study published in the leading journal Bioinformatics.“We know this method is safe, and that it works reasonably well most of the time.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t work - as in the H3N2 vaccine failure in winter 2014-2015 - and even when it does it is immensely expensive and labour-intensive. Also, these yearly vaccines give us no protection at all against potential future pandemic flu,” said Dr Gatherer.

The team are now actively seeking partners in the pharmaceutical industry to synthesise their vaccine for a laboratory proof-of-principle test.

Flu Pandemics

1918-19: Spanish flu

1957: Far East flu

1968–1969: Hong Kong flu

2009-2010: Swine flu