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New Strategy Could Lead to Universal, Long-Lasting Flu Shot
Experimental vaccine targets portions of the flu virus that don’t change Influenza strains are referred to by a shorthand code, H5N1 for example, that describes which flavors of two particular surface proteins it carries. The H (sometimes HA), is hemagglutinin, a lollipop-shaped protein that binds to a receptor on a human cell, the first step toward getting the virus inside the cell.
“On the virus particle, there's five to 10 times more hemagglutinin than neuraminidase,” said Nicholas Heaton, PhD, an associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke who led the research. Vaccines teach the immune system to react to pieces of the virus that have been specifically tailored to the versions of influenza that are expected to be the most threatening in the coming flu season. CITATION: “Vaccination with Antigenically Complex Hemagglutinin Mixtures Confers Broad Protection From Influenza Disease,” Zhaochen Luo , Hector A. Miranda, Kaitlyn N. Burke, M. Ariel Spurrier, Madison Berry, Erica L. Stover, Rachel L. Spreng , Greg Waitt, Erik J. Soderblom, Andrew N. Macintyre, Kevin Wiehe, Nicholas S. Heaton.
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