Universal Flu Vaccine May Be Available in Five Years
- By BSTQ Staff
New research led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University (OSHU) reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine — a so-called “one and done” vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus. The study tested an OHSU-developed vaccine platform against the virus considered most likely to trigger the next pandemic.
According to the researchers, the vaccine generated a robust immune response in nonhuman primates that were exposed to the avian H5N1 influenza virus. But the vaccine wasn’t based on the contemporary H5N1 virus; instead, the primates were inoculated against the influenza virus of 1918 that killed millions of people worldwide.
“It’s exciting because in most cases, this kind of basic science research advances the science very gradually; in 20 years, it might become something,” said senior author Jonah Sacha, PhD, professor and chief of the Division of Pathobiology at OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center. “This could actually become a vaccine in five years or less.”
In the study, researchers reported that six of 11 nonhuman primates inoculated against the virus that circulated a century ago — the 1918 flu — survived exposure to one of the deadliest viruses in the world today, H5N1. In contrast, a control group of six unvaccinated primates exposed to the H5N1 virus succumbed to the disease.
