菠萝视频 researchers have received a five-year, $9 million grant from the to design more effective flu vaccines and novel antibody therapies.
Current flu vaccines鈥攚eakened or inactivated forms of the influenza virus given as injections or nasal sprays鈥攖rigger immune responses against viral proteins. Because these proteins are constantly changing, they help the virus evade immunization. That鈥檚 why flu vaccines are not 100 percent protective.
Vaccines could be universally protective if they induced immunity against highly conserved, unchanging places on the surfaces of proteins found in every flu virus, says , who is co-principal investigator of the grant along with , associate professor of chemistry and pharmacology.
Similarly, these universal antibodies that recognize every strain of the influenza virus could be developed into the first effective, injectable antibody therapy against the flu, says Crowe, the Ann Scott Carell Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases; professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology; and director of the .
Despite widespread immunization campaigns, as many as 30,000 Americans die of flu complications each year. If a new strain emerges for which no effective vaccine or treatment exists, it could kill millions worldwide.
鈥淔lu is just a continual ticking time bomb,鈥� says Crowe.