Researchers at the London School for Tropical Medicine and London Imperial College may have had a major breakthrough in creating a way to combat the next flu pandemic. Since the 1918 outbreak that devastated millions of people, the flu has may not be sitting heavily on the minds of the masses as most of us feel protected by our yearly flu shots, but researchers are still attempting to eradicate the rapidly mutating influenza and understand the potential for another massive outbreak of a new strain.
The flu, which mutates two viral surface proteins in order to avoid the body’s immune system and infiltrate the respiratory system: haemeglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). The researchers at the aforementioned institutions have decided to use the binding method of the virus in order to disable it. They have engineered a new form of antibody that attaches to the usual attachment sight on the virus (where it would usually attach to the sialic acid in the respiratory tract) and thus blocks it from interacting with any human cells. By targeting the sialic acid attachment sight, there is hope that this method could work for other infections such as some of the streptococci family. One thing that is really special about this new way of approaching the influenza problem is that, because the sialic acid sites are less likely to mutate at such a high frequency as the HA or NA surface proteins, this vaccine of sort could transcend multiple strains of the virus.
For more information:
-India Robinson
No comments:
Post a Comment