Discovery brings researchers closer to goal of “universal” flu vaccine
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – ATLANTA—The pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccine can generate antibodies in vaccinated individuals not only against the H1N1 virus, but also against other influenza virus strains including H5N1 and H3N2. This discovery adds an important new dimension to the finding last year that people infected with pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus produced high levels of antibodies that were broadly cross-reactive against a variety of flu strains.
Development of a “universal” influenza vaccine that protects against multiple viral subtypes has long been the goal of immunologists working to overcome the requirement for a new vaccine during each flu season and the need for a rapid response to potentially dangerous mutations.
The new discovery brings the researchers closer to being able to design a pan-influenza vaccine that reliably induces broadly cross-reactive antibodies at sufficiently high levels to protect against different influenza subtypes.
The findings are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The researchers are from Emory University, the University of Chicago, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Complete News Release: http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/05/h1n1_vaccination_produces_antibodies_against_multiple_strains/
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