A better defence against pandemic flu may be on the way.
It takes months to make a flu vaccine but, as each vaccine works against only one particular flu virus, we can鈥檛 stockpile any.
In 2011, researchers looking for a universal vaccine found an antibody that attacks all flu viruses. Normally flu tricks us into making too little of the antibody to make a difference, but James Wilson at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and his team have created a workaround.
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They put the DNA that codes for the antibody into an innocuous virus and squirted it into the noses of mice and ferrets. There it made the antibody, which protected the animals against flu viruses including the lethal H5N1 bird flu.
Such a stockpiled remedy could buy time in a pandemic while a vaccine is made, the team say.
Journal reference:
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚s flu salvation right under our nose?鈥�
