THE NEW FLU VACCINES MAY BE FAR MORE EFFECTIVE

SCIENTIFIC researchers and drug companies are busily working on new generations of flu vaccines to combat the rapidly mutating virus much more effectively.

Professor Wendy Barclay, the chair in influenza virology at Imperial College London, explains: ‘There is lots of research into new and better vaccines. One way is to stay with what we make at the moment, but do a better job.’

However, the ultimate target is

to invent a universal vaccine that can protect against whatever new strains of flu emerge.

‘Because flu is unpredictable, we shouldn’t rely on being able to pick the right emerging strain,’ says Professor Barclay.

One approach involves firing up the immune system so people don’t get as ill when they contract the flu virus.

‘Research at Imperial College showed that at the start of the swine flu epidemic, people with the right sort of T-cell immunity did not get as ill,’ Professor Barclay adds.

T-cells are a type of white blood cell crucial to the immune system. T-cells learn and remember the exact shape of invading viruses so they can quickly recognise them and amass a T-cell army to destroy them.

When flu viruses mutate, they change shape and stay one jump ahead of the T-cell defences. Scientists hope to create a vaccine that primes T-cells to recognise a part of the flu virus that doesn’t change when the virus mutates.

Another approach involves harnessing a rare human immunity to the virus in all its mutated forms.

‘We know that people have developed these rare antibodies,’ says Professor Barclay. ‘The question is, how can we persuade our bodies to make more of these types of antibodies?’