Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory disease
caused by a family of RNA viruses, which belong to the family Orthomyxoviridae. The most effective
preventative measure for influenza viruses is vaccination. The three genera of Orthomyxoviridae are influenza types A,
B, and C. Only influenza A can lead to both seasonal epidemics and pandemic
strains. Type B influenza viruses change by the process of antigenic drift. The
flu is constantly evolving, and one way it changes is through antigenic drift,
which is when changes in the genes occur as the influenza virus replicates.
Additionally, the accumulation of these genetic changes over time results in
the production of viruses with different antigenic properties, which the
seasonal flu vaccines account for. Therefore, a new flu vaccine with a
different composition is created annually to parallel the evolution of the
viruses. It targets strains of influenza A and B that will likely be present in
future flu seasons. Pandemic strains are caused by antigenic shift, which is
when a new influenza A virus is created due to major, sudden changes in the
previous virus. Most people do not have antibodies to fight off the new virus.
One example is the 2009 H1N1 virus. A completely new virus formed and quickly
spread, creating a pandemic.
The authors of an article published
in the journal Bioinformatics designed
a universal flu vaccine to target multiple strains at once, which would help
fight the more basic strains before they turn into pandemics. The researches
designed two epitope ensemble vaccines that offer wide coverage of the
different subtypes of the virus. One targets the US population, and the other
is a universal vaccine. The US-specific vaccine covers 95% of observed
influenza subtypes. The universal vaccine covers 88 % of universal subtypes.
The ultimate goal of a “universal” vaccine is to protect against most influenza
A subtypes, if not all. Accomplishing such broad protection is challenging due
to the constantly changing influenza viruses. More studies must be conducted on
this topic before we would have a true “universal” vaccine for the flu.
However, this research is promising for the future of influenza vaccine
development. It could lead to new strategies in design to offer broader, more
effective vaccines that last longer.References:
Qamar
M. Sheikh, Derek Gatherer, Pedro A Reche, Darren R. Flower. Towards the
knowledge-based design of universal influenza epitope ensemble vaccines.
Bioinformatics, 2016; btw399 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btw399
Abby-
ReplyDeleteWow! I’m totally ignorant to this topic because I have never received an influenza vaccination. I had no idea that flu vaccination compositions were reformulated annually to keep up with the alterations in the flu viruses. But, now it makes sense as to why people continue to get the vaccines every year when “flu season” comes around. While I think a universal vaccine would be beneficial, I think it would be quite hard to accomplish. Since the influenza virus is constantly changing and adapting, I feel as if it would be hard to protect against the variety of altered forms that arise over years. For example, the US-specific vaccine that is protective against 95% of influenza subtypes might decrease in value when new subtypes develop. Regardless, I agree that this research has great potential (based on what has been developed so far) and would highly benefit the community since flu shots are so popular!
Hey Abby,
ReplyDeleteI liked the article. I have had to receive flu shots in the past and knew that the shots changed in response to whichever strains are prevalent but I did not know they were working on creating more permanent vaccines. In the past there have been rare occasions that the distributed vaccine in the US did not adequately predict and protect against every common strain of flu, and this leads some pretty serious consequences. These new vaccines are great news since the most effective health care delivery method is preventative treatment. Vaccines like this can help decrease the burden on the medically system and I can't wait to see how effective this turns out.
Abby,
ReplyDeleteI know I am not one to ever get the flu shot. Every year I brag about how I've never gotten the flu and have never been vaccinated-I know one day this will definitely haunt me and karma will catch up! I think it is really cool that they are trying to find a universal vaccine, however, I see this being very very hard to achieve especially since the shot is changed annually according to the prevalent strains. Hopefully this research will be a start to something big; an 88% vaccine is already pretty high.
Abby,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting topic to me. I always thought it was neat that based on the strain of flu that is prevalent during flu season in China, is what the US uses to predict what type of strain will be prevalent in the US. Sometimes the flu shot works and sometimes it does not using this prediction method because of antigenic drift that sometimes can happen very rapidly like in the case of H1N1. I usually don't get the flu shot because I have in the past and I always end up getting the virus versus when I don't get the shot, which is weird to me. I think having a vaccine that covers 88-95% of the known strands of flu is beneficial in that the predictions are sometimes wrong and you aren't protected against the flu strains that weren't in the vaccination. There is always the problem that the virus changes so readily and it doesn't only infect humans for these changes, it affects other animals with pigs being considered an intermediate or mixing vessel in which humans can contract the novel forms of the flu like H1N1.
Do you happen to know if the costs of the "universal" vaccines have been discussed? Free flu vaccines are readily available at certain times of the year. Do you think the "universal" vaccines will ever become that available one day?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your questions Clarra! To my knowledge, the costs of the universal vaccine have not been discussed. Due to the constant evolvement of the viruses, it will take a while to get there but I think it definitely could eventually, at least to where a majority of the strains would be covered. If this is developed, it will save significant amounts of money if people get the vaccine because much fewer people would get sick, and therefore there would be less doctor's office visits and less hospitalizations due to complications of the flu. So most likely it will be offered at a reasonable cost hopefully, or even free, so more people will get it and be protected.
DeleteI'm kind of curious as to how this works. An epitope ensemble vaccine just sounds like a mix of antigens that already exist, rather than a way to target future pathogens.
ReplyDeleteIf this could be further researched and end up being manufactured, it would be very beneficial, but because the strains are constantly changing because the virus evolves would be difficult. I'm interested to see how they take on the challenge of the ever-changing flu strains!
ReplyDelete