Science Daily March 30, 2022 The highly conserved 24–amino acid ectodomain of M2 protein (M2e) is a leading candidate for a universal flu vaccine. However, its poor immunogenicity has been a major roadblock in its clinical development. An international team of researchers (Singapore, Australia) successfully leveraged a novel vaccine platform to deliver M2e to immune cells. This allowed them to prove that a single shot immunization containing M2e was able to trigger long-lasting immune responses that could protect effectively against multiple strains of the flu. They demonstrated that this approach significantly enhanced protective immune responses in the context of pre-existing […]
Tag Archives: Universal vaccine
A step toward a universal flu vaccine
MIT News October 7, 2020 Most flu vaccines consist of inactivated flu viruses coated with a protein called hemagglutinin (HA), which helps them bind to host cells. After vaccination, the immune system generates squadrons of antibodies which almost always bind to the head of the HA protein which mutates rapidly. Parts of the HA stem very rarely mutate. The immune system is intrinsically not good at seeing the conserved parts of these proteins, which if effectively targeted would elicit an antibody response that would neutralize multiple influenza types. A team of researchers in the US (MIT, Harvard University, industry) describe […]