Researchers closer than ever to a universal flu vaccine

Researchers at McMaster University and two American universities have taken another step closer to developing a much more effective, “one-punch” universal flu vaccine. Their latest findings, published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA (PNAS), build upon their earlier discovery of a class of antibodies capable of neutralizing the most dangerous types of Influenza viruses. These antibodies, according to the researchers, essentially “train” the immune system to recognize a portion of the virus that does not change from year-to-year and, in doing so, can pave the way toward a universal vaccine that needs to be given just once and could protect against all future strains of the flu, including mutated strains. Seasonal flu vaccines work by generating antibodies that bind to the virus and prevent it from infecting cells. Universal flu vaccines do this as well, but go one step further by recruiting white blood cells to destroy...