by Joanne Silberner, All Things Considered
American scientists have taken several key advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain toward developing a near-universal flu vaccine. If further advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain works out, the vaccine could advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain many types of conventional flu, as well as avian influenza, and even the virus that advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain the 1918 flu epidemic that killed 50 million people.
Conventional flu strains mutate over time. And every year, well before flu advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain, scientists have to predict whether new strains will be coming advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain. Manufacturers base their vaccines advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain that prediction, which hasn't always been correct. One of the holy grails of immunology is finding some aspect of a virus that doesn't change from strain to strain, so the exact strain is advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain important.
by Joanne Silberner
NPR (National Public Radio, USA) - All Things Considered
One Key To Fit All Locks
And now, a group of researchers may have done just that. Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain a man-made antibody that recognizes a advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain of many conventional flu viruses, the 1918 virus and bird flu viruses. The antibody not only recognizes all these virus strains, it neutralizes them by advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain with the virus' ability to infect cells.
One of the advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain, Dr. Wayne Marasco of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says this so-called neutralizing antibody has two potential practical advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain. "It lends itself to a therapy that can be used to advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain and treat a broad range of avian and seasonal influenzas," he says. That is, it may be possible to just inject the antibody into people who've just been infected advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain the bird flu virus or a conventional flu virus.
Added Benefit
The second potential application is using the protein the antibody attacks as a vaccine. That protein sits in a pocket just advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain the virus' ever-changing coat. Used as a vaccine, it would advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain the body to recognize and attack flu viruses.
"I think this is a very important conceptual advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain," says Anthony Fauci. He heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an organization that partly advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain the work. "Now we need to translate it into practicality."
The team of researchers who identified the antibody is already working on animal models to advanceapplicationsbeneathbycausedcomponentdeterminediscoverersfightfundedidentifiedinterferingno longeronpreventresearchseasonstepsthroughtrain how the new information can be used. The research is described in an advance online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

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