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US scientists recruited a curious ally in their efforts to develop a flu treatment: the llama.
The blood of this animal from South America was used to produce a new antibody therapy likely to fight against all types of influenza including pandemics .
The flu is one of the most clever diseases to change shape. and constantly change appearance to escape our immune system, which is why vaccines are not always effective and that a new injection is needed every winter to prevent it .
Science is looking for a way to end all types of flu, regardless of its strain or degree of mutation.
And to is the place where the llama intervenes more known. for his wool.
These animals, typical of the Andes, produce incredibly small antibodies compared to ours.
Antibodies are the weapons of the immune system and adhere to proteins that protrude from the surface of the virus.
Human antibodies tend to attack the ends of these proteins, but that's the part that the flu changes faster.
While anti-flame antibodies use their advantageous size to wrap more deeply and attack parts that the flu can not change.
Synthetic Antibodies
A team from the Scripps Institute, California, flames infected with multiple types of flu to provoke an immune response.
They then explored the blood of these auquenidos in search of the most potent antibodies likely to attack a wide variety of influenza strains.
Scientists eventually selected four and then began developing their own synthetic synthetic antibody containing elements from each of them.
The result was tested on mice receiving lethal doses of influenza.
very effective, there were 60 different types of viruses that were used in the challenge and only one was not neutralized and it is a virus that does not have a virus. does not affect humans, "said Professor Ian Wilson, one of the researchers, at the BBC Science in Action program.
" The goal here is to provide something that works from station to station and that also protects you from possible pandemics, if they present themselves, "explained the scientist.
was published in the scientific journal Science and is still in a very early stage, and l 39; The team wants to perform more tests before starting to experiment with humans.
The Holy Grail
The researchers used two different techniques at the time of administering antibodies to animals. [196] 59017] The first was to inject them and the second was gene therapy.
The genetic instructions for the development of the antibody were packaged in a harmless virus . used to infect the nose of mice.
And the cells of the lining of the nose began to produce anti-influenza antibodies.
An additional benefit of this is that could work in the elderly. [19659002] The older the immune system, the less effective the seasonal flu vaccine becomes.
But this flame-based treatment must not result in our immune system.
Professor Jonathan Ball of the University of Nottingham told the BBC: "It is very desirable to have a treatment that can act on different strains of the virus." Holy Grail of the flu . "
" There will be an appetite (for treatment), but it will depend on the quality of its operation, its high cost, "he said. note.
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