The discovery of immune cells brings us closer to a universal flu vaccine

The effects of the flu virus can range from debilitating to fatal. It is even more encouraging that a group of international researchers has made a discovery that could bring us closer to the universal universal flu vaccine, which is dreaming of all the inhabitants of the world.

"Our work is focused on the development of a universal flu vaccine: a vaccine that would not require annual reformulation," Marios Koutsakos, a researcher at the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne. "Our publication in this week's Nature Immunology demonstrates that a subset of white blood cells called" killer "T-cells can confer immunity to all types of influenza viruses that can infect humans. … it's a very exciting and new discovery as it gives us new ideas on how to design a universal flu vaccine. In essence, we have identified the parts of influenza viruses that are common to all strains and to which killer T cells can also respond. "

T cells are a type of white blood cell whose job is to badyze the body for abnormalities and infections. They are a crucial part of the human immune system. "Killer" T cells have the ability to target and kill infected cells. Using a scanning technique called mbad spectrometry, researchers were able to identify parts of the influenza virus shared by all influenza strains. Developing a long-lasting influenza vaccine is normally very difficult as the virus continues to mutate, which means that the body is not able to find a permanent way to fight it after being exposed once or even several times .

Although this latest discovery is still in its infancy, the team believes that it would be possible to use this information to develop a vaccine that can solve this problem. In animal tests, researchers were able to activate killer cells in mice. These vaccination test studies have dramatically reduced the levels of influenza virus and inflammation of the respiratory tract of animals.

However, at the moment, there is bad news: the "killer" T cells identified in the study are only present in 50% of the world's population. Future research could, however, work around this problem. "Our next step is to use the same methods used in this study to identify more killer T-cells that can respond to all strains of influenza to provide a universal influenza vaccine for all," said Koutsakos. . "We have a patent that will allow us to develop such a vaccine."

Soon on a pharmacy tablet near you. Or at least we hope so.