In a recent discovery that could radically change how the world fights influenza, researchers have engineered antibodies that protect against many strains of the virus, including the Spanish flu and the bird flu. The discovery could lead to the development of a flu vaccine that would not have to be changed yearly. And the antibodies already developed can be injected as a treatment, going after the virus in ways that drugs like Tamiflu do not.
Clinical trials to prove that the antibodies are safe in humans could begin within three years, researchers estimate. The work is so promising that grants have already been offered to the research and the antibodies are now being tested on ferrets, which can catch human flu. The study, lead by researchers at the Harvard Medical School, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, was published Sunday in the journal Nature and Molecular Biology.
Leading doctors are calling the discovery a big advance in itself and one that shows what’s possible for other rapidly evolving pathogens. Antibodies are proteins that are normally produced by white blood cells that attach to invaders. They neutralize them by clumping on or tagging them so that white cells can find and engulf them. The antibodies in question can be built in laboratories and then produced in plants, driving down the price of medications that contain them.
There are sixteen known types of flu virus and they are known to invade the nose and the lung cells. The viruses mutate constantly, which is why flu shots have to be reformulated each year. This research has found a way to clamp on the “neck” of the virus, which does not mutate, and the once this is done the antibodies can penetrate the virus allowing the human cell to do what nature intended, wipe out the virus.
Antibodies derived from the blood of survivors of a viral infection, known as immunologic, have a long history in medicine. Since the 1890’s scientist have been using these kinds of treatments with good results but also with some chance of dangerous side affects. The Harvard team showed that the antibodies they are developing can work just as well, without the chance of harmful side affects. But it is still unclear how long an antibody-producing vaccine will offer protection; the new antibodies themselves fade out of the blood after about three weeks.
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