Japanese researchers develop all-round flu vaccine
Researchers in Japan have developed a flu vaccine that works against multiple viruses and could prevent a deadly pandemic of bird flu mutations.
Researchers in Japan have developed a flu vaccine that works against multiple viruses and could prevent a deadly pandemic of bird flu mutations.
The research team has tested the vaccine on mice implanted with human genes, confirming that it works even if flu viruses mutate, said Tetsuya Uchida, researcher at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Researchers from the National Institute, Hokkaido University, Saitama Medical University and NOF Corporation, a chemicals company based in Tokyo, are jointly conducting the study.
Currently flu vaccines use a protein covering the surface of viruses but the protein frequently mutates to make the vaccines ineffective.
The newly developed vaccine is based on common types of protein inside the bodies of flu viruses as they rarely change, Uchida said. The viruses used are the Soviet-A and Hongkong-A along with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that millions of people could die worldwide if the avian influenza virus mutates into a form easily transmissible among humans.
Experts say mostly the Soviet-A, Hongkong-A and type B viruses cause influenza that affects humans.
Uchida said it would take several years to put the vaccine to practical use as the research team needs to confirm its safety with further experiments on mice and possibly larger animals before tests on humans.
Uchida said the experiment had been done with the type A viruses but the method should also be effective on the type B.
Many people who were affected by the Soviet-A strain in Japan this winter were found to be resistant to widely used flu medicine Tamiflu, Japan's health ministry said.
Tamiflu has been controversial in Japan after authorities said children jumped off buildings or ran into traffic after taking it. But authorities have found no direct link between the drug and the abnormal behaviour.
According to Ichida, similar vaccination studies on attacking the inside of the virus body, rather than its surface, are under way outside Japan, including at Oxford University in the UK.
About 250 people have died of avian flu since 2003, according to the WHO.