Lifelong flu vaccination possible soon?

A new vaccine could soon offer lifelong protection against the flu. The safety and effectiveness of the vaccine has already been confirmed in a phase I clinical study.

New York (U.S.A.). The efficacy of influenza vaccines is subject to considerable seasonal fluctuations and is on average 50 percent. The reason for this is that medicine has to predict which flu strain will occur before the start of the winter season in order to adapt the existing vaccines accordingly.

Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have now presented a chimeric vaccine against influenza in the journal Nature Medicine, the effectiveness of which has been successfully tested in a clinical phase I study with various strains of the infectious disease caused by viruses.

Vaccines attack the hemagglutinin

Most seasonal flu vaccines make the immune system aware of the pathogen via a protein molecule (hemagglutinin) on the virus' s outer shell. Then an immune reaction recognizes and destroys the viruses. However, the hemagglutinin differs greatly between the many strains of the flu and is constantly changing.

The vaccine presented by Austrian virus researchers Florian Krammer, Peter Palese and Raffael Nachbagauer, on the other hand, activates the immune system for a stem segment of the hemagglutinin that is extremely similar in all viruses. As Krammer explains, "the vaccine is chimeric, which means that the researchers combined a strain with different head domains.

So far, the strain now used in flu vaccinations has hardly been used as a detection target because it is less exposed than the head and can therefore only be recognized with difficulty by the immune system.

Study confirms effectiveness and safety

In the Phase I clinical trial, the chimeric vaccine was tested on 65 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 39 years. It was found to be safe and effective. The test persons vaccinated with the chimeric active substance then showed a strong immune response against various flu viruses for at least 18 months. Now the vaccine is to be tested with older people up to 59 years.

Lifelong protection against the flu

According to the developers of the new vaccination method, two to three vaccinations could protect a person from influenza viruses for life. The new vaccination could also trigger an immune response against a wide range of flu viruses, including new subtypes. This would prevent possible pandemics from new influenza viruses.

In addition, the vaccine would make the flu vaccinations, which are necessary again each year and which are only weakly requested in Germany, even by risk groups, superfluous. In poorer countries in particular, where there is hardly any money for regular vaccinations, permanent vaccination could significantly improve the protection of the population against influenza viruses.