The key ingredient of the universal flu vaccine is perhaps among llama antibodies

Is the search for the key ingredient of a universal flu vaccine finally over? Thanks to the llama's antibodies, researchers have been able to produce antibody therapy that can fight all types of flu.

Universal vaccine against flu from llamas?

Vaccines are a key element in the fight against the flu virus. However, problems such as the weak immune response of some people as well as the many variations of the influenza virus and its ability to change remain. That's why people still need to be vaccinated every year with updated vaccines and why researchers are still looking for a universal flu vaccine that can fight most types of flu and even all.

To test the immune response of camelids such as llamas, researchers at the Scripps Institute in California have injected llamas of multiple influenza strains to induce an immune response. The researchers then searched the lama's blood for the most potent antibodies that could attack several strains of the flu and chose the four antibodies from which they had constructed synthetic antibodies. It was then injected into mice with lethal doses of influenza.

Surprisingly, llama antibodies neutralized all 60 viruses tested, with the exception of the remaining virus, which does not affect humans.

Llama Antibodies

Obviously, the reason why llama antibodies work so well is because animal antibodies are much smaller than human antibodies, which can attack only the tip of proteins that can be easily mutated. However, smaller sized llama antibodies are so small that they have the ability to attack the deeper parts of the virus, so that it can not so easily be transformed or disrupted. edit.

"The goal here is to provide something that would work from season to season and that would also protect you from possible pandemics," said Professor Ian Wilson, one of the researchers.

The researchers note, however, that their study is still in its infancy and that more testing is needed before moving on to human testing.

The study is published in the journal Science.

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