Vaccine created from 1918 Spanish flu may protect against all strains
A universal vaccine created from the 1918 Spanish flu virus protects against a deadly strain of bird flu, a study has found.
Scientists said the product could be available to people in just five years after promising trials on animals.
The current annual flu vaccination programme requires an updated jab to match that year’s dominant strain because the virus mutates so frequently that previous vaccines become ineffective.
Scientists built their “one and done” flu jab by repurposing research on tuberculosis and HIV, two infections that also mutate significantly and constantly.
There is a separate clinical trial underway from researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University that is using the same technique to find a HIV vaccine.
The vaccine, based on the Spanish flu virus that killed tens of millions of people in 1918, was given to 11 primates who were then infected in a lab with the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.
More people are thought to have died from the 1918 flu outbreak than perished in the First World War, with some estimates stating 100 million people could have died of the disease.
The pandemic was caused by a deadly strain of H1N1 Influenza A and the first UK case is thought to have been in April 1918.
Six of the animals survived the infection, which was fatal in non-inoculated individuals.
However, the six animals that made up the control group all died from the Spanish flu they were infected with in less than a week.
‘100 years of evolution’
Jonah Sacha, a professor at the Oregon Health and Science University, said: “It’s exciting because in most cases, this kind of basic science research advances the science very gradually; in 20 years, it might become something. This could actually become a vaccine in five years or less.”
The vaccine uses a harmless herpes virus, called cytomegalovirus, to deliver a piece of genetic code from the flu virus to the cells in the body to mimic an infection.
Scientists said their approach targets a specific type of immune cells in the lungs known as effector memory T cells, which are able to recognise proteins in the core of the virus that do not evolve.
Prof Sacha said: “It worked because the interior protein of the virus was so well preserved.
“So much so, that even after almost 100 years of evolution, the virus can’t change those critically important parts of itself.”
Potential for developing H5N1 vaccine
The team said the study also raises the potential for developing a vaccine against H5N1 in people.
Douglas Reed, the associate professor of immunology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Centre for Vaccine Research in the US, said: “Should a deadly virus such as H5N1 infect a human and ignite a pandemic, we need to quickly validate and deploy a new vaccine.”
The researchers said their vaccine technology, which is licensed by immunology company Vir Biotechnology, could also work on other viruses, such as Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, to deliver long-lasting immunity.
Prof Sacha said: “It’s a massive sea change within our lifetimes.
“There is no question we are on the cusp of the next generation of how we address infectious disease.
“For viruses of pandemic potential, it’s critical to have something like this. We set out to test influenza, but we don’t know what’s going to come next.”
Scientists have been pursuing more long-term vaccines that are able to act against a range of different infections for some time.
The current Covid jabs, for example, are bivalent and contain essentially two different vaccines designed to target the original Wuhan strain as well as an Omicron variant.
The scientists say the universal vaccine’s approach is unique because of its “ability to elicit and maintain long-lived memory T cells”.
The study is published in Nature Communications.