Towards a universal flu vaccine
Pictured: Dr Anne Moore
Pictured: Dr Anne Moore
Every flu season a new flu vaccine is created, because the predominant flu virus that is going around is likely to have changed, and vaccines from previous years will not give enough protection. If a pandemic flu breaks out, there is a global scramble to develop and distribute vaccines in time. But a Health Research Board-funded team at University College Cork (UCC) has been making strides in the area of a ‘universal’ flu vaccine that protects against many strains, including potential pandemic flu.
“Instead of targeting the outer surface of the flu virus, which is the part that changes the most, we want to develop a vaccine that targets more hidden parts of the virus, which tend to change less,” explains Dr Anne Moore, School of Pharmacy and the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, UCC.
Dr Moore’s team has been looking at potential ‘universal’ flu vaccines that introduce a small amount of the flu virus into the host in order to encourage the host’s immune system to build up a memory of it.
The study worked out important elements of the manner in which a host immune system responds to the two potential vaccines. It has also established expertise in universal flu virus development at UCC and has led to an EU-funded study on flu vaccine delivery.
The findings are described in the latest edition of the HRB’s Picture of Health 2012 which is published today. This annual publication highlights, in non-technical language, recent developments arising from Irish health research funded by the HRB.