Traditionally, the viruses used to make winter flu shots are grown in fertilized chicken eggs. The vaccine virus is injected into thousands of eggs, which are then incubated for two to three days during which the virus multiplies. The egg white, which now contains millions of vaccine viruses, is then harvested and the virus separated. The number of vaccines that can be marketed therefore depends on the quantity of eggs that the manufacturer can obtain and incubate.
How to speed up the vaccine manufacturing process?
Researchers at the University of Rochester, in the United States, have been trying for several years to find a way to speed up this process in order to be able to meet demand in the event of vast epidemic. With the support of the genetic engineering company Protein Sciences, they inoculated pieces of DNA from the influenza virus into caterpillar cells. The vaccine was thus produced much faster and in larger quantities. But as explained on the CNN website, it is still too early to say whether it protects against the flu more effectively, which researchers seem to believe.
“The first patients were vaccinated in October 2014 and followed up during the 2014-2015 season” explains Dr. Lisa Dunkle, Chief Medical Officer of Protein Sciences. “2.2% of the volunteers who received this vaccine had an influenza infection compared to 3.2% of the members of the control group who had received the traditional vaccine “.
Why would it be more efficient? Perhaps because the vaccine is made using insect cells, the researchers said. This results in a less modified version of the antigen – the part of the virus that makes a vaccine work.
This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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