New single vaccination approach to killer diseases

Scientists from the University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for Infectious Diseases have developed a single vaccination approach to simultaneously combat influenza and pneumococcal infections, the world’s most deadly respiratory diseases. The researchers say a single vaccination – combining vaccines from the new class of vaccines they are developing – will overcome the limitations of current influenza and pneumococcal vaccines used around the world. Published in the prestigious journal Nature Microbiology, they have shown that the new Influenza A virus vaccine under development (based on inactivated whole influenza virus) induces enhanced cross-protective immunity to different influenza strains, when it is co-administrated with the new class of pneumococcal vaccine. They showed the enhancement in immunity is associated with a direct physical interaction between the virus and the bacterium. Led by Dr Mohammed Alsharifi and Professor James Paton, this latest study builds on previous research on the development of a new class of inactivated vaccines that...