Good news of medicine: Antibody appears against all flu viruses in the world

A vaccine against all kinds of flu? Perhaps coming soon!

Flu - a disease that seems to be so popular, but it is still impossible to solve the century. At the present time, we only have specific vaccines for each influenza virus strain (including 3 types of influenza A, B, and C, each with thousands of different viruses), and at the same time must be injected every year to avoid resistant mutant virus.

So, long-cherished humans intend to create a vaccine, or a drug that can handle all the current influenza viruses. And now, that dream is coming true with a landmark discovery.

A vaccine against all kinds of flu?Probably about to appear.

Specifically, experts from the University of Melbourne (Australia) have identified some human antibody cells capable of fighting all three strains. Their operational potential is said to be permanent, or at least a few years.

And if you find a way to make the whole immune system work as well, it can be said that the era of the vaccine will officially end. We will need only one injection,

It is known that these potential cells were discovered when experts analyzed cases of people infected with avian influenza H7N9 in 2013. The group of people who responded to CD8 + T lymphocytes also had a rapid recovery rate. than.

CD8 + T is also known as killer cells, because they play a role in attacking all external threats entering the body. They look like professional gate guards.

"We have been learning about these killer cells for a long time," said Katherine Kedzierska, research director from Melbourne University. "So, the next step is to see what the mechanism of protecting these cells' cells is, and whether they can replace flu vaccines."

That was when Kedzierska decided to conduct a new study. They performed an analysis of more than 67,000 viral samples, searching for individual peptide fragments on all types of viruses in three human strains. In it, they used epitopes to mark on CD8 + T cells, to know when cells react to the virus and destroy them.

Pandemic influenza viruses are all strains of influenza A.

"We identified common points among flu strains when infecting humans," said Marios Koutsakos, an expert in the research team.

Experts use this part of the virus to activate antibodies on mice, and they succeeded. The results showed that the incidence and level of inflammation were significantly reduced.

According to experts' estimates, there are currently about 54% of the world's population owning standard CD8 + T cells in humans, enough to activate this defense mechanism. Of course this does not mean we have a vaccine for all types of flu, just to bring that dream closer. This can be seen as an important step for humans to create better tools to fight influenza viruses.

Pandemic influenza viruses are all strains of influenza A. Annual influenza pandemics belong to both strains of influenza A and B. strain C is rarer, but still has the potential to cause some serious illnesses in children small.

However, all three strains of influenza are highly mutable, making the vaccine for them less effective. So if from a CD8 + T a vaccine is available that can attack all strains of influenza, we can save thousands of people every year.

The study is published in Nature Immunology.

Epitope - or antigenic determinant - is the structural position on an antigenic molecule that can react with a chemical structure of antibody molecules in the blood or on immune cells.