Flu "super antibody" may bring universal shot closer

[ej510]

Source: Reuters

Reuters) - Scientists have found a flu "super antibody" called FI6 that can fight all types of influenza A viruses that cause disease in humans and animals and say their discovery may be a turning point in the development of new flu treatments.

Researchers from Britain and Switzerland used a new method aimed at beating "needle-in-a-haystack-type-odds" and managed to identify an antibody from a human patient which neutralizes both main groups of influenza A viruses.

Although it is an early step, they said, it is an important one and in time may pave the way for the development of a universal flu vaccine.

Vaccine makers currently have to change the formulations of their flu shots every year to make sure they protect against the strains of the virus circulating. This is a cumbersome process which takes time and money, so the goal is come up with a universal flu vaccine that could protect people from all flu strains for decades, or even for life.

Dozens of companies make influenza vaccines, including Sanofi Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, AstraZeneca and CSL.

"As we saw with the 2009 pandemic, a comparatively mild strain of influenza can place a significant burden on emergency services. Having a universal treatment which can be given in emergency circumstances would be an invaluable asset," said John Skehel of Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, who worked on the study with colleagues from the privately-owned Swiss firm Humabs.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/28/us-flu-antibody-idUSTRE76R65F20110728

[brooklynite]

1. Isn't this usually what they announce at the start of post-Apocalypse movies?

[Laxman]

2. That's exactly what I was thinking!

When humans can't fight off the flu any more that's Darwin at work. I'm don't mean to be insensitive to the elderly or those with compromised immune systems for whom the flu is a serious concern, but if they try to start giving healthy people the "universal" flu shot...run away! Plus there's sure to be zombies or some other form of mass extinction right around the corner.

[Demonaut]

6. mine too....brains!!mmmmmm

[harun]

12. lol, I thought "Where have I read this script before?".

[ixion]

3. the "super antibody" heralds a "super flu"

I don't understand why that's so hard for medical science to understand. And then, when it does manifest -- and it will -- they'll say "no one could have foreseen this" or some such thing.

[Confusious]

4. The reason they don't "understand" is because a super antibody

doesn't herald a super flu. Logical fallacy. One does not automatically lead to the other.

There have already been super flues, such as the 1918 Spanish flu. So we're a little late.

If the vaccine can fight all flues, then it must connect to something that all flues have in common. If they have it all in common, if it changes, it's not a flu anymore. Get the idea? I hope.

[ixion]

7. How is it a fallacy? The flu virus is not static. It evolves.

So you can't speak of it as a static entity, E.g. 'what all flues have in common'

They are all viruses, and viruses have shown to be very adaptive to antibody therapy.

[Confusious]

8. seriously, take some science classes

Biology preferably.

flu virii are all related. That's why they are called 'influenza'. Just like humans have all pretty much the same DNA, so does the 'influenza' virus. There are just small differences, not large ones.

Do you think there are a bunch of different little virii we have no idea what to do with so we just lump them in the group 'influenza'?

They all have DNA in common and this vaccine will help attack that.

Science is your friend. Read about it.

[ixion]

9. I've taken science classes

I might recommend the same for you.

[Confusious]

17. I don't think you have

You can't seem to answer simple questions about a family of virii

[ixion]

13. To put a finer point on it:

A vaccine formulated for one year may be ineffective in the following year, since the influenza virus evolves rapidly, and new strains quickly replace the older ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza

[Confusious]

15. You didn't answer my questions.

No matter how much they evolve, they still have things in common to be called 'influenza'

Do you think this is not the case?

[ixion]

18. No, that is the case

they all come from the same family.

When Penicillin was discovered, it was considered a wonder drug. Now there are strains of staph that are immune. My point is simply that influenza evolves, and that there is a possibility that a super drug against it could cause a mutation that was immune. Do you think this is not the case?

[Confusious]

19. vaccines and antibiotics work differently

and a virus is not the same as bacteria.

if you had taken a science class, you would know that.

thanks for proving my point.

[ixion]

20. lol... ah so you're all about snark

You DO realize that you got type of nucleic acid wrong in influenza, don't you snarkboy? :rofl: It's RNA, not DNA.

I've taken plenty of science. As I said, I would recommend you brush up yourself since you apparently don't know what the hell you're talking about; and are only posting so that you can make snide and witless remarks.

[Confusious]

21. Took you long enough to realize it.

Did you have to look it up?

[ixion]

23. No. I was going to let it slide because I thought for a moment you were looking for

an actual discussion. When you let your true purpose be known, I figured, what the heck.

[Confusious]

24. Snark is reserved for people who

think they know more then actual people with experience and education in the field, and prove they don't.

your opening line:

The super antibody heralds a super flu. I don't understand why that's so hard for medical science to understand.

while I don't have a degree in that field, if the immunologists say that it will fight all forms of flu, I'm inclined to believe them. A lot more then a guy who thinks that a vaccine will create a super bug, or that a vaccine and antibiotics work the same way.

[NickB79]

26. Actually, flu virus cycles between RNA and DNA, depending where in it's replication cycle it is

The mobile virii particles carry RNA, but this is then injected into host cells that take over the cellular machinery and get transcribed to DNA. This DNA then gets re-transcribed back to RNA to reform more flu virii that bud out of the cell to infect neighboring cells.

[Confusious]

16. dup

[Selatius]

10. He might have a point, though.

How do we know that this super anti-body won't allow us to drive influenza into extinction much as we did with the small pox virus?

[ixion]

11. I'm not saying there isn't a chance of that...

although my personal opinion is that nature is more resilient than that, and generally adapts to threats rather than succumbing to them. That's what evolution is all about. Adapt or perish.

[NickB79]

25. Not all the DNA can mutate without making the virus inactive

Or changing it in some way that makes it non-virulent.

Look at human DNA for an example. There are plenty of spots where genetic variability can be found, which is obvious when you look at the wide range of human body types and biological differences. However, the vast majority of human DNA can't change without killing us. A few mutations in our mitochondrial DNA, for example, result in metabolic disorders that would kill in short order, assuming the affected individual even reached adulthood.

There is a reason we can say things like "Humans and chimps share 97% of their DNA." Most of it is off-limits to all but slight mutations over long periods of time. This also holds true with flu DNA. It appears that this "super-antibody" might attack a stretch of DNA that has long-term generational stability.

[Tesha]

5. It doesn't necessarily work that way.

As you'll recall, smallpox is extinct in the wild, thanks to human
efforts using antibodies.

Tesha

[ixion]

14. True. But smallpox is a different family of virus from Influenza

which evolves rapidly.

[and-justice-for-all]

22. I hope it works..

but viruses are fast to adapte/evolve and hard to conquer. If the super-shot does work, it does yeild the possibility of a super-flu coming to the surface in the future and when it does, their will be nothing to fight it with.