Universal Vaccine Against Flu Viable

The flu may become a little less prevalent, say researchers who have discovered antibodies that may eventually be the key to developing a broadspectrum vaccine for the rapidly mutating

virus.

The antibodies, identified at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, target a mutation-resistant region on the surface protein Hemagglutenin, which provides a crucial link between the many strains of influenza virus.

The region’s constancy would allow for a one-time vaccine that would not be out-moded by rapid changes in viral structure. Current flu vaccines must change every year to accommodate mutations within the virus.

“We never thought it possible that there was

a common way to treat the many types of influenza,” said Wayne A. Marasco, an associate professor at Dana-Farber.

The anti-bodies uncovered in the study have yet to be converted into a vaccine form that would provide permanent protection from the deadlyflu virus, which kills approximately 36,000

Americans each year.

But Marasco, the project’s principal researcher, said an effective human flu vaccine may be ready for use within three years.

A single strain of the virus, influenza-A, causes the majority of flu cases, but comes in sixteen varieties—evidence of the great difficulty of finding a general cure for the disease.

Besides working against many seasonal flu strains, the recently identified antibodies could cure all forms of Avian flu, as well as the Spanish Flu, which caused a global pandemic

in 1918, Marasco said yesterday.

But further study is necessary before a

broad-spectrum flu vaccine can reach the market, said Paul D. Biddinger, an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School and the

Harvard School of Public Health.

“If [the drug] turns out to be safe and effective, it will be a great step forward in combating a serious threat,” Biddinger said. “[But] further evidence must be shown.”

“This prospect is one of the more attractive options for preventing a pandemic outbreak,” said Biddinger.