Flu protection: lymphocytes instead of antibodies?
A universal flu vaccine will be created soon
Copper news
(Ask them where they got it from, that it will be soon, and not in 15-20 years. If at all: from the definition of the target of therapy to the shelves of pharmacies, the distance is enormous, and until the end it goes well if one of a hundred equally promising ideas is VM).
After analyzing data from the 2009 flu pandemic, British scientists have found out why some people can resist a severe viral infection. It turned out that, unlike those who had the flu, there were a large number of T-cells of the immune system of a certain type in their body. This study helped bring us closer to the development of a universal flu vaccine. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Medicine (Sridhar et al., Cellular immune correlates of protection against symptomatic pandemic influenza).
Modern flu vaccines cause the production of antibodies that recognize certain structures on the surface of the virus, bind to them and lead to the development of a protective immune response. But such vaccines are usually one step behind, as they have to change every year with the appearance of new strains of the virus.
"New strains of the flu virus are constantly emerging, and some of them are deadly," ScienceDaily (Scientists Closer to Universal Flu Vaccine After Pandemic 'Natural Experiment') quoted Professor Ajit Lalvani, who led the study, as saying, "therefore, it is necessary to create a universal vaccine that could be effective against all strains.".
Previously, it was assumed that T-cells could protect against flu symptoms, now this idea has been confirmed by examining patients during a pandemic.
Professor Lalwani's research team recruited about 340 volunteers who were asked to take a blood test regularly and report all their symptoms over the next two flu seasons. Every three weeks, the subjects filled out a questionnaire about their health, and if they had flu symptoms, they sent a nasal swab to the laboratory.
As a result of the study, it was found that the subjects who were seriously ill with the flu had a small number of CD8 T-cells in their blood, and those who caught the flu virus, but did not experience any symptoms of the disease or felt only mild symptoms, had a lot of these immune system cells in their blood.
Professor Lalwani noted that, unlike antibodies, CD8 T cells affect the basic structure of the virus, which does not change even with the appearance of new pandemic strains of the virus. The authors of the work believe that a vaccine that will stimulate the body to produce more of these cells could be effective for protecting the body from influenza viruses, including its new strains. Now that we know about the role of this type of T-cells in the immune response, we can develop a universal flu vaccine. This, they say, will help contain the annual seasonal flu and protect people from pandemics.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.09.2013