It's everyone's favorite time of the year, flu season. The flu is a respiratory disease that targets the nose, throat, and sometimes the lungs. Symptoms can be mild or severe and may include fever, cough, sore throat, headaches, and fatigue. It is thought to be spread when infected individuals cough or sneeze and get bacteria into the air that other people come into contact with. Symptoms usually onset between 1 to 4 days and a person is contagious in the first 2 to 3 days after their symptoms begin. Hopefully, the flu shot you received actually works against the strain of flu that is currently circulating because it is not always a guarantee.
Flu vaccinations are not always effective because scientists typically have to guess the strain that will end up circulating in the population. Sometimes, the strains that are incubated for vaccinations are not always great matches for the strains that circulate in the population. Another factor may be that the strains are grown in eggs which can lead to mutations and cause the vaccine to be less effective. The goal of the vaccines is to get the body to produce antibodies to the specific strain of the virus so, if the vaccine contains the wrong strain, then more people will get the flu. For example, the flu vaccination in 2012-2013 was effective in only 39% of people, which is incredibly low.
These types of vaccines may be a thing of the past, though. Recently, researches have found an antibody that they tested in mice. This antibody protected the mice against various lethal strains of the flu. This could potentially mean a universal vaccine for the flu is close. The researches found that the antibody binds to a protein called neuraminidase which is required for the flu virus to replicate in the body. Typically, anti-neuraminidase antibodies are general within sub-types of the flu and do not always work on all strains. Recently, blood samples were examined that showed evidence of an antibody that had potent activity across multiple strains. The researches found that the one antibody protected mice against 12 strain of the flu which was unheard of.
Someday, the fly may be a thing of the past. People will no longer have to worry about if the vaccine they received will have an effect or not. These anti-neuraminidase vaccines might just be the answer to all influenza related problems. We can only hope that the virus does not mutate to become resistant to these vaccines.
Posted by Brianna Luciani (8)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That seems Ideal , but I think evolution will always take over . Even when we try I think new strain will probably always evolve to become resistant .
ReplyDeleteThat seems Ideal , but I think evolution will always take over . Even when we try I think new strain will probably always evolve to become resistant .
ReplyDelete- Fredjah Desmezeaux
Even if the flu viruses do evolve, they'd have less of a chance of developing a resistance to an anti-neuraminidase vaccine because it is blocking the receptors that the viruses use to replicate. The evolution of the flu virus should be way more intricate to bypass something like that.
ReplyDelete- King Wahib
I wasn't aware that scientists were looking into creating a universal flu vaccine that could tackle many different strands. I feel like that would be an incredible innovation. In regards to flu season, why do we need the flu shot so frequently? Do flu strains evolve relatively quickly to cause this demand of different yearly vaccines?
ReplyDeletePosted by Lauren Shone
We need the flu shot every year because due to mutation in the DNA of the virus. There are so many strains and each one can mutate to form a new strain. Scientists have to be able to some extent predict and formulate new vaccines every year basically as an update to the old one in order to combat this. It is very difficult because the circulating strain may not always be what they predicted. It could also have to do with the decline in antibodies that the body experiences with any vaccination. Pretty much all vaccines need a booster every so many years.
DeletePosted by Brianna Luciani
This is very prevalent as it is the flu season and many people are getting sick during this time of the year. I find it interesting how most flu vaccines are made or manufactured in egg based cultures. This process of manufacturing egg-based vaccines have been used to develop the inactivated vaccines which are the flu shots as well as the live attenuated vaccines. I am curious as to what are the alternatives for people with egg allergies and are there other ways in which flu vaccines are developed.
ReplyDelete-Emily Wong
It is interesting how the flu is able to mutate so quickly each year at around the same time. I wonder why it never skips years or appears twice in one year.
ReplyDelete-Isaac Collibee
This was a very informative post, I had no idea that flu vaccines are uniquely developed based on the predicted strain in a particular area. I believe the development of a universal flu vaccine could be life saving, but also detrimental at the same time. By binding the neuraminidase protien, the vaccine acts as a competitive inhibitor and provides effective treatment. However, with the rapid evolution of resistant bacteria and viruses it could be catastrophic if we were to become solely dependent on a universal treatment, and the virus somehow was able to evolve the ability to bind to the protein allostericaly. Do you think that this could be a potential pitfall of the vaccine, or do you think the conformational change induced by the binding vaccine would prevent any other chemical interactions?
ReplyDeletePosted by Kayla Rosiello
I do agree that it may be bad to rely on a universal vaccine for a virus that can mutate so quickly. If the universal vaccine does work at some point, I believe that the influenza virus will find a way to bind to any conformation of the protein because of how well it is able to adapt to current vaccines every year. The universal vaccine may work for a period of time, however; it may become ineffective at some point due to mutations in the DNA of the virus. This is all just speculation as it is difficult to say for sure without there be any scientific basis yet.
DeletePosted by Brianna Luciani
In the beginning of the blog you mention that the flue is thought to spread when infected individuals cough or sneeze. Do you happen to know how long the virus can stay within an environment before it enters a host and begins to replicate itself? An evolved antibody would surely help an abundance of flu cases across the country, but it is important that there is extensive human testing and clinical trials to prove it is effective.
ReplyDelete-Elise Babula
I was listening to the podcast "PANDEMIC!!!" by Science Vs. the other day. Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes that Influenza could be the cause of a great pandemic that wipes out mankind. Influenza is transmitted though air. They believe that if one of the deadly flu viruses had the ability to mutate so it could spread faster between humans, a pandemic could break out. It was a fascinating podcast that I highly recommend.
ReplyDeletePosted by Lauren Mason