H1N1 discovery paves way for universal flu vaccine

University of British Columbia researchers have found a potential way to develop universal flu vaccines and eliminate the need for seasonal flu vaccinations. Led by Prof. John Schrader, Canada Research Chair in Immunology and Director of UBC’s Biomedical Research Centre, the research team found that the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” vaccine triggers antibodies that protect against many influenza viruses, including the lethal avian H5N1 “bird flu” strain. “The flu virus has a protein called hemagglutinin, or HA for short. This protein is like a flower with a head and a stem,” says Schrader. “The flu virus binds to human cells via the head of the HA, much like a socket and plug. Current flu vaccines target the head of the HA to prevent infections, but because the flu virus mutates very quickly, this part of the HA changes rapidly, hence the need for different vaccines every flu season.” 


Vaccines contain bits of weak or dead germs that prompt the human immune system to produce antibodies that circulate in the blood to kill those specific germs. However, the research team found that the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine induced broadly protective antibodies capable of fighting different variants of the flu virus. “This is because, rather than attacking the variable head of the HA, the antibodies attacked the stem of the HA, neutralizing the flu virus,” says Schrader. “The stem plays such an integral role in penetrating the cell that it cannot change between different variants of the flu virus.” 


The new discovery could pave the way to developing universal flu vaccines. 


Source: The University of British Columbia Media Release, 8 May 2012

Bird Flu rears its head again

29 August 2011, Rome 

FAO today urged heightened readiness and surveillance against a possible major resurgence of the H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza amid signs that a mutant strain of the deadly Bird Flu virus is spreading in Asia and beyond, with unpredictable risks to human health. 

The H5N1 virus has infected 565 people since it first appeared in 2003, killing 331 of them, according to WHO figures. The latest death occurred earlier this month in Cambodia, which has registered eight cases of human infection this year - all of them fatal.  Since 2003, H5N1 has killed or forced the culling of more than 400 million domestic poultry and caused an estimated $20 billion of economic damage across the globe before it was eliminated from most of the 63 countries infected at its peak in 2006. However, the virus remained endemic in six nations, although the number of outbreaks in domestic poultry and wild bird populations shrank steadily from an annual peak of 4000 to just 302 in mid 2008. But outbreaks have risen progressively since, with almost 800 cases recorded in 2010-2011. 

Source: FAO