Reuters reported that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine have developed a vaccine that could protect against future influenza pandemics and serve as a preventive measure.
The “multivalent” vaccine, which uses the same messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) promoted by Pfizer and Moderna’s SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, can protect people against all 20 known influenza virus subtypes. Different strains of flu, so there will be far fewer illnesses and deaths in the next flu pandemic,” said the study’s lead author, Scott Hensley, a professor of microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, who developed the vaccine with colleagues.
mRNA technology plays a key role
Influenza viruses are known to cause pandemics that cause large numbers of deaths. Although we have influenza vaccines, they are only seasonal and protect against recently circulating strains and do not protect against new strains of the pandemic.
When injected, the experimental vaccine produces copies of a critical influenza virus protein, the hemagglutinin protein, for all twenty influenza hemagglutinin subtypes: H1 through H18 for influenza A viruses and two more for influenza A viruses from influenza B.
The mRNA tested in mice elicited high antibodies that effectively responded to all 20 influenza subtypes. Unlike other vaccines, the newly developed vaccine is not expected to provide the sterilizing immunity that prevents viral infections. Instead, it triggers a memory immune response that can “quickly recover and adapt to new pandemic virus strains,” reducing severe illness and death. “Against later variants such as Omicron, these original vaccines did not wholly block viral infections but still provided long-lasting protection against severe disease and deaths.
Human trials awaited
Human trials anticipated Hensley and his colleagues are currently developing human trials. If the trials are successful, the vaccine could help build long-term immune memory against all influenza subtypes in people of all ages. “We think this vaccine could significantly reduce the chance of severe influenza infection,” Hensley said. And added that the same multivalent mRNA strategy could be used for other viruses, such as coronaviruses.
