Universal flu vaccine ‘could protect against pandemics’

Scientists say they have made a breakthrough in designing a universal vaccine that could protect against flu.

It will protect against all 20 known types of flu and uses the same technology as the Covid vaccines.

A universal vaccine would not mean an end to flu seasons but would replace the guesswork that goes into developing annual shots months ahead of flu season each year.

The new two-dose vaccine triggered high levels of antibodies in tests on ferrets and mice. It contains safe copies of parts of all 20 known types of the flu virus, enabling the animals’ immune systems to recognise and learn to fight them.

In lab experiments, vaccinated animals’ immune systems recognised the flu virus and defended against 18 different strains of influenza A and two strains of influenza B.

Antibody levels induced by the vaccine remain unchanged for at least four months, according to a report published in the journal Science.

The vaccine reduced signs of illness and protected from death even when the ferrets were exposed to a different type of flu that were not in the vaccine, the researchers said.

“The idea here is to have a vaccine that will give people a baseline level of immune memory to diverse flu strains, so that there will be far less disease and death when the next flu pandemic occurs,” study leader Scott Hensley of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania said in a statement.

The universal flu vaccine, if successful in human trials, would not necessarily prevent infection. The goal is to provide durable protection against severe disease and death, Mr Henley said.

Director of the Institute for Global Health and Emerging Pathogens at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York, Adolfo García-Sastre, said: “Current influenza vaccines do not protect against influenza viruses with pandemic potential.

“This vaccine, if it works well in people, would achieve this. The studies are preclinical, in experimental models.

“They are very promising and, although they suggest a protective capacity against all subtypes of influenza viruses, we cannot be sure until clinical trials in volunteers are done.”