Clinical Trial of Universal Flu Vaccine Is a Success

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and the University of Melbourne in Australia tested a new universal flu vaccine that produced good immunity against several different strains of influenza viruses. In the study, the research team looked at antibodies from 40 healthy adults who had been vaccinated against group two H7N9 or group one H5N1 flu strains, and found that B cells in people immunized with the group two vaccine were broadly reactive to viral proteins in both group one and group two hemagglutinin subtypes. According to the researchers, the results suggest that vaccines against the stem hemagglutinin proteins of group two viruses could be more effective at inducing widespread immunity than those against group one hemagglutinin stem proteins, or the current subtype specific vaccines.

The next studies will confirm whether an initial vaccination with group one or group two proteins is more effective for developing the most broadly reactive antibodies, and they will include evaluation of vaccine in young children who haven’t received the flu vaccine previously and don’t have pre-existing antibodies to confuse results. The researchers will also continue evaluating their universal vaccine in a larger number of people. If the current vaccine proves safe in Phase I clinical trials, the next steps will be Phase II and III clinical trials to test its effectiveness and to monitor side effects.