"A Universal Flu Shot May Be Nearing Reality" - Laura Beil
The influenza virus seems so normal to most Americans that only about half of us will heed those “time for your flu shot” banners that pop up at pharmacies and worksites every autumn. The annual shots remain the best means of protection, but they must be manufactured months before flu season starts, based on a best educated guess of what strains of the virus will be circulating. Scientists have long worked to develop a flu shot that works better and lasts longer. Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai took tops from two flu strains that circulate only in birds, and connected each one to a human hemagglutinin stalk. This experimental vaccine consists of two doses. “The human immune system will try to find something it has seen before,” said Peter Palese, PhD, professor and chair of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In theory, the only antibodies in play will be the ones responding to the parts of the stalk that the immune system recognizes, known as the “conserved domains.” “The $64,000 question,” according to Dr. Palese: “Will the immune response to these conserved domains be enough to elicit a broad immune system reaction?”
- Peter Palese, PhD, Professor, Chair, Microbiology, Professor, Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai