How the Universal Vaccine Works

Описание: Each year, the influenza virus mutates and “reassorts” genes between strains. When it mutates, the body’s immune response may not recognize the new variation of the virus, causing some strains to avoid both natural and vaccine-induced immunity..
Scientists develop new vaccines every year to account for such mutations. The vaccine protects against the three to four strains they predict will be most common in the coming year. It typically contains a mix of weakened or inactivated viruses with a mix of hemagglutinins (HAs)—the proteins that cover the surface of the influenza virus..
The typical flu shot attempts to build an antibody response to the head of the HAs. There is a small part of the head that mutates frequently so that the antibodies are unable to recognize and defend against the virus..
This new vaccine incites antibodies to target the stalk of the surface protein, rather than the head. The stalk is much less prone to mutation and stays structurally the same in each variation of the influenza virus. However, the body’s immune responses are trained to respond strongly to the HA’s head, overriding antibody production for the stalk..
To get around this, the Mount Sinai team created what they call the chimeric HAs vaccine. These have the same stalks but unfamiliar heads, which trigger a much lower antibody response to the head and a higher response to the stalk..
“The beauty part of this vaccine is that it’s not only broad, but multifunctional with stalk-specific antibodies that can neutralize many kinds of influenza viruses,” Adolfo García-Sastre, PhD, co-author of the study and director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a press statement..
With a chimeric HA-based vaccine, people may have long-term immunity to many variants of influenza after two to three shots, the authors say. This could be helpful for public health efforts to increase immunity across a population..
“This universal vaccine could be particularly beneficial to low- and middle-income countries that don’t have the resources or the logistics to vaccinate their populations each year against influenza,” García-Sastre said..

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https://www.verywellhealth.com/univer...