Swine flu survivors developed super flu antibodies

[Guest guest]

but the normal flu shot does already have the whole HA,

including the stalk region.

Yet we need a trivalent vax, since there are diferent HAs.

And we need it each year newly.

And experience tells that

people naturally infected with flu don't get much immunity

against other strains.Else there would be no pandemics.

Despite what those people found in mice.

If it would work, then why can't it be demonstrated in humans ?

[Guest guest]

Swine flu survivors developed super flu antibodies

By Steenhuysen – Mon Jan 10, 12:28 pm ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A study of antibodies from people infected with H1N1 swine

flu adds proof that scientists are closing in on a " universal " flu shot that

could neutralize many types of flu strains, including H1N1 swine flu and H5N1

bird flu, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They said people who were infected in the H1N1 pandemic developed an unusual

immune response, making antibodies that could protect them from all the seasonal

H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the deadly " Spanish flu " strain from 1918

and even a strain of the H5N1 avian flu.

" It says that a universal influenza vaccine is really possible, " said

of the University of Chicago, who worked on the paper published in the

Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Many teams are working on a " universal " flu shot that could protect people from

all flu strains for decades or even life.

U.S. officials say an effective universal flu vaccine would have enormous

ramifications for the control of influenza, which kills anywhere from 3,300 to

49,000 people in the United States each year.

's team started making the antibodies in 2009 from nine people who had

been infected in the first wave of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic before an H1N1

vaccine had been produced. The hope was to develop a way to protect healthcare

personnel.

Working with researchers from Emory University School of Medicine, the team

produced 86 antibodies that reacted with the H1N1 virus, and tested them on

different flu strains.

Of these, five were cross-protective, meaning they could interfere with many

strains of flu including the 1918 " Spanish flu " and a strain of H5N1 or avian

flu.

Tests of these antibodies in mice showed they were fully protected from an

otherwise lethal dose of flu.

And some of these cross-protective antibodies were similar in structure to those

discovered by other teams as having potential for a universal flu vaccine.

" It demonstrates how to make a single vaccine that could potentially provide

permanent immunity to all influenza, " said in a telephone interview.

" LOLLIPOP STICK "

Flu vaccines and drugs focus on proteins found on the surface of the flu virus

called hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which give influenza A viruses their

names, as in H5N1 or H1N1.

Hemagglutinin is a lollipop-shaped structure with a big, round head. This head

is so large it attracts most of the immune system antibodies, but it mutates

readily.

Two years ago, researchers working for Crucell NV and a separate team found that

antibodies that attach to the " stick " or stalk part of the hemagglutinin

lollipop mutate much less -- providing a perfect target for a vaccine that could

neutralize a range of different flu viruses.

" Previously, this type of broadly protective, stalk-reactive antibody was

thought to be very rare, " Jens Wrammert of Emory said in a statement. But in the

H1N1 patients, he said, they were " surprisingly abundant. "

That may be because the H1N1 virus was so different from other flu strains that

the immune system made antibodies for the only parts of the virus it recognized

-- this " stick " or stalk region that is common to many flu strains.

said the study proves it is possible to get the immune system to make

these antibodies if it has the right stimulation. The team is working with an

unnamed biotechnology company to develop a vaccine or drugs based on this

notion.

And a team at the National Institutes of Health is testing a two-step vaccine

that uses DNA from stalk-reactive antibodies to " prime " the immune system,

followed by a regular flu shot.

A study in July showed this two-step approach protected mice and ferrets against

flu strains from 1934 through 2007. This vaccine is now being tested in people.

http://news./s/nm/20110110/hl_nm/us_flu_vaccine