a new weapon far more powerful than the vaccine

Researchers would have found an alternative to the flu vaccine. Their potentially revolutionary study, published in the journal Science, indicates that a gene can fight 59 strains of the flu virus.

The vaccine is never 100% effective

As the influenza virus mutates constantly, the vaccine is never 100% effective, and thus avoided by far too many French people. "The influenza virus mutates permanently, in a perfectly random way," explains Bruno Lina, professor of virology at Lyon 1 University and Head of Service at Hospices Civils de Lyon. "Some mutated viruses escape the immune response, and can infect people who have already had the flu.In this sense, even if adjusted annually, the vaccine against the disease can not be 100% effective" .

According to the latest weekly epidemiological bulletin, two different influenza viruses followed last year: the "A (H1N1) virus pdm09" and the "Yamagata virus B lineage". The vaccine was effective against the first, but not against the second. As a result, the number of influenza-like illness visits during the epidemic was estimated at nearly 2.4 million, with a large excess mortality (17,000 deaths).

Antibody

By looking for other ways to fight the flu, scientists have discovered that people naturally produce antibodies that can fight against various strains of the virus. They then created a gene capable of making these antibodies and then injected it into a harmless virus, which scientists spread in the mouse's nose. Sixty strains of the influenza virus were then inoculated with the animals, and only one strain out of the 59 was not controlled by the antibodies.

"The MD3606 multidomain antibody protects mice against influenza A and B infections when administered intravenously," the researchers conclude. "Our results demonstrate that multidomain antibodies have increased cross-reactivity and viral activity and can be an effective strategy for preventing infection with influenza and other highly variable pathogens," they add.