Researchers in Australia are on the verge of discovering a universal flu vaccine — one which would be effective against all strains of the virus. When they do, we won’t have to take a new flu shot every year anymore. We’ll just get this one shot, and never more. It’s a finding that is being heralded as an “extraordinary breakthrough.” It could even end the flu and influenza epidemic once and for all.
The Epidemic
According to the World Health Organization, Influenza epidemics kill hundreds of thousands of people each year (the majority seasonally). It was even the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more people than heart disease or cancer, before the discovery of antibiotics.
There are vaccine formulas against it but they have to be regularly updated and currently only offer limited protection. This is because the virus comes in many strains – all of which mutate frequently – making it also difficult to eradicate it.
Marios Koutsakos, a researcher at the University of Melbourne’s Doherty Institute, said:
“Influenza viruses continuously mutate to evade recognition by our immune system, and they are vastly diverse, making it nearly impossible to predict and vaccinate against the strain that will cause the next influenza pandemic.”
The Killer T-cell
Koutsakos and his colleagues used mass spectrometry—a scanning technique that helps separate molecules based on their mass—to identify parts of the virus that are shared across all flu strains. That’s how they found out that killer T-cells could effectively fight variations of influenza A, B and C. They realized that they could engineer killer T-cells that are capable of targeting all variations of influenza A, B, and C.
T-cells are immune cells that scan the body for viruses and infection, as well as target and kill other cells in the body which have already become infected. Killer T-cells are a type of white blood cells that are (ironically) part of the natural immune systems of around half the world’s population. So, the answer has been in abundance, in plain sight all along!
Now the researchers are working on developing a version of this “killer” T-cell to fight all forms of the flu in one fell swoop. The team behind the research has patented their discovery already, and they hope it will enable them to develop a universal influenza vaccine “to reduce the impact of pandemic and seasonal influenza around the world”.
Once And For All
If the vaccine can also be developed to work on the half of the population that doesn’t naturally possess these flu-killing T-cells, it could eventually lead to the eradication of the flu entirely, just like how smallpox or polio have been wiped out. This discovery has immense potential to be a world-changing find. The recipients of the vaccine would be protected from ever catching the flu again for the rest of their lives… that’s amazing!
Competing Immunizations?
BiondVax, an Israeli based pharmaceutical company currently have a universal flu vaccine in a Phase 3 clinical trial, the first universal flu vaccine to have progressed to this stage. The M-001 vaccine contains no part of any flu virus, dead or alive. It’s a peptide vaccine that contains nine, highly conserved viral epitopes, those parts of an antigen recognized by the immune system. M-001 has a synergistic effect when used alongside the regular seasonal flu vaccine.
A joint venture between 2 existing UK-based pharmaceutical companies; hVIVO and PepTcell Limited called Imutex, has created a universal flu vaccine called FLU-v, which has been found to be extremely effective at both creating immunity and reducing flu symptoms. The vaccine has passed a Phase 2b trial and the company is preparing for a Phase 3 trial for the vaccine this year. The company claims that the vaccine would cost £20 to £50 (US$26 to $66) per person but will provide effective universal against all flu strains and won’t need to be modified like the seasonal flu vaccine.
Researchers at Vaccitech, a private spinoff of Oxford University in the UK have already started a Phase 2 clinical trial on their universal vaccine MVA-NP+M1. The company announced that it gained US$27.6 million from investors, including Alphabet Inc.’s venture capital arm GV.
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have been developing vaccines against the stalk part of hemagglutinin. They found that when they used the entire hemagglutinin protein, the antibodies only targeted the head, so they instead developed chimeric hemagglutinin proteins with a head that comes from one variety of hemagglutinin such as a bird flu, and the stalk from a human influenza A subtype such as H1 or H3. They found that animals vaccinated with chimeric hemagglutinin proteins produced many more antibodies against the stalk common to both flu strains. Chimeric hemagglutinin protein vaccines are the basis of two Phase 1 clinical trials.
FluGen in the USA is testing an intranasal vaccine called RedeeFlu in a Phase 1 clinical trial. A study with ferrets found that RedeeFlu protected against new virus strains that were related, but not identical to the one in the vaccine. The vaccine works better than other vaccines as it stimulates antibody and T-cell responses, according to FluGen cofounder Yoshihiro Kawaoka.
US based company Inimmune is working with an adjuvant called TRAC-478 which combines the properties of individual adjuvants called TLR4 and TLR7/8 individually. TLR4 recognizes bacterial infections, while TLR7 and TLR8 recognize viral infections. Jay Evans, president of Inimmune says “By combining TLR4 with the TLR7/8, we’re stimulating an immune response in two very different ways: one that the body would recognize as potentially a bacterial infection; and the other body would recognize as a viral infection. So those two are very synergistic and drive a much stronger immune response when combined with a traditional vaccine.” Research found that when used in combination with a seasonal flu vaccine higher levels of antibodies and T-cell responses were found in mice and pigs. Evans says: “Not only do we make that immune response stronger, but we can actually drive responses against epitopes that wouldn’t normally have been recognized without the adjuvant. And by broadening that response against other epitopes, you can now develop vaccines that are cross-seasonally protective, or universal.”
Conclusion
All of the new universal flu vaccines target parts of the flu virus that have previously been ignored. The vaccines also aim to give stronger and more varied immunity for more universal immunity, faster recovery from infection and fewer symptoms.
The universal flu market is very new, but it is also very competitive. With so many companies and top researchers racing to be the first and the best and with such positive results so far, it’s extremely likely that a universal flu vaccine will be available in the next 2 to 7 years that could wipe out the flu for good.
Not only could these vaccines wipe out the flu, but the same approaches could be used to create universal vaccines for things like HIV and even the common cold.
