{"id":411846,"date":"2023-12-29T08:12:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T13:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/could-antibody-discovery-lead-to-better-flu-vaccines-drugs-com-mednews\/"},"modified":"2023-12-31T14:09:37","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T19:09:37","slug":"could-antibody-discovery-lead-to-better-flu-vaccines-drugs-com-mednews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/could-antibody-discovery-lead-to-better-flu-vaccines-drugs-com-mednews\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Antibody Discovery Lead to Better Flu Vaccines? – Drugs.com MedNews","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm<\/a>. Last updated on Dec 29, 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Carole Tanzer Miller HealthDay Reporter<\/p>\n

FRIDAY, Dec. 29, 2023 — Researchers appear to have discovered a new weapon in the war on a particularly difficult foe.<\/p>\n

They have identified a previously unrecognized class of antibodies that seem to be capable of neutralizing multiple strains of the flu<\/a> virus.<\/p>\n

Their findings, recently reported in the journal PLOS Biology<\/a>, could lead to development of a vaccine that protects more broadly against influenza. <\/p>\n

Each year, new vaccines are offered based on experts’ best guesses about which strains will dominate. Sometimes they guess right, other times, not so much. <\/p>\n

“We need annual influenza virus vaccines to keep pace with continuing viral evolution,” the authors said in a journal news release. “Our work suggests that the barriers to eliciting more broadly protective immunity may be surprisingly low.”<\/p>\n

An array of studies are paving the way for vaccines that protect against multiple strains.<\/p>\n

Many are focused on antibodies that can protect against flu subtypes known as H1 and H3 at the same time. These come in multiple strains and cause widespread infection.<\/p>\n

Led by Holly Simmons<\/a> of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, researchers in this study zeroed in on one target.<\/p>\n

They focused on a small change found in some H1 strains in the sequence of building blocks that makes up hemagglutinin, a protein that plays a key role in the early stage of infection. <\/p>\n

Some antibodies that neutralize H3 can also neutralize H1, but not if its hemagglutinin has this change, dubbed the 133a insertion, researchers explained.<\/p>\n

Using blood samples from patients, they identified a class of antibodies that can neutralize some H3 strains as well as some H1 strains with or without the 133a insertion. <\/p>\n

A vaccine coaxes the immune system to make antibodies that can bind to hemagglutinin and stop it from invading a person’s cells. Different antibodies bind to parts of hemagglutinin differently, and the virus also changes over time, resulting in new strains that can evade the old antibodies. <\/p>\n

Researchers said this work expands the list of antibodies that could possibly contribute to development of a vaccine with broader protection. It also adds to growing evidence supporting changes in how flu vaccines are manufactured, they added.<\/p>\n

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Sources<\/h2>\n