Thursday, 6 June 2013

Holy Grail of influenza research: a universal flu vaccine


Credit: National Geographic

Why does an influenza vaccination only work for one year?  Others work for years, even a lifetime.

Existing vaccines work by "teaching" the immune system to recognize proteins in the coat which surrounds the virus.  Once the immune system is able to recognize the virus by its coat, it can attack & destroy it.

Unfortunately, the rate of mutation in the proteins in the coat is very high. This means that if you are immune to last year's influenza virus (i.e. your immune system can recognize the proteins in the coat of the virus), this year's virus will have a protein coat so different that you immune system can't recognize it.

Result?  A new vaccination is required each year.

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