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ADVANCED – Thanks to a combination of immunotherapy and gene therapy, researchers have created an artificial antibody that can protect mice against dozens of strains of the flu virus. Their study was published Thursday, November 2 in the journal Science.
– Charlotte Anglade
You will have understood by seeing the spots of prevention diffused on television, the season of the flu is well launched. Once again this year, the health authorities are hoping for a mbadive vaccination of people at risk (children, the elderly, pregnant women, etc.) to limit the spread of the virus and hospitalization. Nevertheless, this vaccine does not always meet a large success. The fault, in particular, its effectiveness not systematically at the rendezvous. Injections do not cover all strains of the virus, and a person vaccinated can still contract the disease. According to the results of the Sentinel Network, for example, the vaccine efficacy was only 54% for people aged 65 and over during the 2017/2018 influenza.
But good news, an international team of researchers gives hope, after laboratory tests, a much more effective alternative to the vaccine. It would succeed, reports the New York Times, to fight 59 strains of the flu virus. Their study was published this Thursday, November 2 in the journal Science.
Healthy and healthy mice
It all started when researchers discovered that a few people naturally produced antibodies that could fight against various strains of the flu. The authors of the study wondered whether they could string these antibodies together in a kind of super-antibodies. They then created a gene capable of making four of these antibodies.
Impossible to transmit thanks to a vaccine, this gene was injected into a harmless virus, which the scientists spread in the mouse's nose. The virus containing the antibodies slipped into the cells of the animal and then began to produce these super-antibodies. Sixty strains of the influenza virus, one of which should have been fatal, were then inoculated. Result: only one of the 59 strain was not controlled by antibodies. However, it was a type of bird flu that has never previously infected humans.
A discovery not yet applicable to humans
If this success represents a great advance in research, it is not currently applicable to humans. Especially since for this experiment, the scientists actually took antibodies from … llamas. These mammals have small antibodies, which makes their badembly more convenient, explains the New York Times. However, injected into the human body, they risk being rejected and create a dangerous reaction. Our fight against the flu, responsible for 13,000 deaths in France last year, is otherwise not yet won.
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