Potential universal flu vaccine has passed an important stage of clinical trials

A drug called FLU-v contains four components that help lymphocytes recognize specific areas of proteins that are characteristic of almost all strains of the influenza virus.

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A vaccine that could provide reliable immunization against several strains of influenza at once is a kind of holy grail for doctors. Perhaps scientists are close to creating a similar vaccine: a development called FLU-V passed the first and second phases of clinical trials. An article about this is published in the publication. Annals of internal medicine.

According to the creators of the vaccine, the test results were very encouraging. “We conducted four clinical trials of FLU-v,” says Olga Pleguezelos of the pharmaceutical company SEEK. “The key point is that a vaccine can give cellular and immune responses that appear within six months of immunization.” Given how fast viruses change, this duration of “immune resistance” is simply overwhelming.

Each influenza season forces specialists to predict which strains will be the most common and to develop vaccines against them promptly. However, in the midst of an epidemic, the virus may mutate or a new strain appears, which will make all measures taken useless.

Previously, scientists tried to find a solution to this problem with the help of “superantibodies,” which in some way will attach to various viral strains. However, this approach did not bring success. In a new work, researchers focused on influenza virus itself, trying to understand which parts of it remain unchanged regardless of strain.

Thanks to the use of a computer algorithm, a team of scientists was able to determine conservative (not subject to changes) sections of viral proteins. FLU-v contains four different components against four different conservative sites of the influenza virus, and even if one of these sites is changed, the three components will still provide high vaccine efficacy.

FLU-v activates T-lymphocytes, which determine the desired sequence of the viral protein, thereby triggering an antiviral response. “It took the scientific community many years to realize the efficacy of the T-cell approach,” comments Pleguezelos. – The 2009–2010 pandemic (referring to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus strain, commonly known as “swine flu.” – Ed.) Showed that people exposed to the virus but not sick had T lymphocytes that responded to [специфичные] sections of the virus. “

So far, FLU-v has successfully completed only the first test phases, which are limited to a safety assessment of development. Now the creators of the vaccine are preparing for the third phase, during which the drug will undergo randomized controlled trials involving a large population of patients and will actually show what it is capable of under “field conditions”.

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