Health Issue: Master Shot

Master Shot: Closing in on the

universal flu jab

Washington: A "headless" version of the influenza virus protected mice from several different strains of flu and may offer a step towards a so-called universal flu vaccine, researchers reported on Tuesday.

         They identified a piece of the virus that appears to be the same even among mutated strains, and found a way to make it into a vaccine. Years of work lie ahead but if it works in people the way it worked in mice,the new vaccine might transform the way people are now immunized against influenza, the team at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York reported.

        "We now report progress toward the goal of an influenza virus vaccine which would protect against multiple stains," Dr Peter Palese, Dr Adolfo Garcia-Sastre and colleagues report in a new journal mBio. "Current influenza vaccines are effective against only a narrow range of influenza virus strins. It is for this reason that new vaccines must be generated and administered each year."

          Palese's team focused on an important piece of the flu virus called hemagglutinin. This mushroom-shaped structure helps the virus attach to the cells it infects and gives flu viruses the "H"in their names. The "neck" of hemagglutinin does not mutate the way more visible bits of the virus do, and if there was an easy way to help the immune system to see it, this provides a good antigenl. But the top, umbrella-shaped part of the hemagglutinin protein hides this vulnerable neck from the immune system. Palese's team found a way to get to the neck, cut it out and make oa vaccine out of it.