Researchers have developed a new vaccine against the A and B viruses of the seasonal flu, for the time being successfully tested on mice.
- Each year, influenza epidemics can seriously affect all age groups, but the highest risk of complications is in pregnant women, children 6 to 59 months old, the elderly and people of all ages with certain chronic conditions. , according to the WHO.
- Adverse effects of vaccination occur in approximately 5% of cases. Most of the time, these are mild reactions such as redness or pain at the injection site, slight fever, muscle aches or nausea. These reactions usually disappear within two days of their appearance.
No universal vaccine allows, to date, to be immunized against all strains of the influenza virus, which mutates permanently, but research in this area continues to advance.
A team from the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University in the United States has announced that it has successfully tested – on mice for now – a unique vaccine that promises to be effective against all mutations. Their work was recently published in the journal More Pathogens.
Influenza A and B
“The single vaccine was effective in conferring broad cross-protection against antigenically diverse influenza A and B viruses in young and aged mice”said Dr. Sang-Moo Kang, lead author of the study, in a communicated. As a reminder, there are three types of seasonal flu: A, B and C, the latter being only very rarely detected and causing only mild infections, according to the World Health Organization.
“Current influenza vaccines are based on strain-specific immunity against hemagglutinin, a highly variable target of immune protection. Annual influenza vaccination is recommended, but its effectiveness is unpredictable and could be less than 20% due to ongoing changes in hemagglutinin proteins. Therefore, influenza remains a high risk to human health worldwide.”can we read in the study.
Coming soon to ferrets
“This study is a good overview of the ongoing development of a universal influenza vaccine that allows broad immunity against influenza A and B variants in populations”according to Dr. Kang.
Thanks to the positive results in mice, the researchers plan to soon test this new vaccine in ferrets, animals that have respiratory tracts similar to those of humans.
