Oct 19, 2010 09:05 GMT  ·  By
Creating a universal flu vaccine has been proven possible by Mount Sinai experts
   Creating a universal flu vaccine has been proven possible by Mount Sinai experts

A new approach currently undergoing study could finally allow experts to create universal flu vaccines, which means that people may take a vaccine against the pathogen once, and then not worry about getting sick for years.

At this point, people who want to stay protected need to take a dose of flu vaccines every year, which protects them against whichever strain happens to be the most widespread that particular season.

But researchers have been looking into creating a antiviral vaccine that would keep people safe for years on end, and not just until the next flu epidemic strikes.

This objective has however proven to be very elusive, and researches into methods of achieving it have largely fail. This is where the new approach shows some promise, Technology Review reports.

Developed by a team of experts at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, the approach demonstrated that mice could be vaccinated against three types of flu at the same time.

The work, led by expert biologist Peter Palese, provides a proof-of-principle for an universal fly vaccine. The team says that the mice that got the shot were protected to various degrees from swine flu, avian flu and the common H3 flu subtype.

The level of protection was absolute only against the latter subtype, but the investigators say that the most important thing about the work is showing that a universal vaccine in itself is possible.

“This has been the dream of people in the influenza field forever and ever – finding a broadly cross-reactive vaccine, instead of having to make yearly changes that account for variance within a subtype, let alone between subtypes,” explains expert Robert Webster.

He holds an appointment as an influenza expert at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, but was not a part of the investigation.

“If this is as good as the mouse says, it'll be fantastic,” he goes on to say. “If we're lucky enough to find one broadly neutralizing antibody that protects against all strains, that would be wonderful,” adds official Gary Nabel.

The expert is the director of the Vaccine Research Center at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). In essence, scientists are looking for methods of destroying whatever material all flu strains share.

Investigators now plan to conduct additional animal studies of the new vaccine, in hopes of being able to start human clinical trials soon.

The new substance only protects once a person has been infected, so it will first be used as a supplement to whatever vaccine is inoculated that particular season.

As progress is made in researching it, the vaccine could replace all other shots entirely, within a few years.