Research and Development News

Antibody Discovery Could Lead to Universal Flu Vaccine

By: Staff Writer | Wednesday 13 July 2011 12:28 PDT

A study conducted by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell may have laid a path for a universal flu vaccine in the near future.

Through testing, researchers detected an antibody that has the potential to prevent or cure infections covering a variety or influenza viruses, which include seasonal and pandemic strains.

The study reveals that influenza subtypes are effectively neutralized by the antibody, including the deadly H3N2 strain that killed an estimated 1 million people in Asia during the 1960s.

"Together this antibody … [has] the potential to protect people against most influenza viruses," said Ian Wilson, a Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and a member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research and senior author of the new paper with Crucell's chief scientific officer Jaap Goudsmit.

Wilson and Crucell scientists have been working together since 2008 to strengthen influenza vaccines, which currently only work against a narrow set of strains. Furthermore, these vaccines are unable to battle unforeseen strains.

The new antibody, however, has the potential to prevent lethal infections, including viruses such as the H1N1 strain that became a pandemic in 2009.