At a Glance
- Each year, scientists concoct a vaccine based on their best predictions..
- Unfortunately, the vaccine is not always reliable because the flu virus mutates.
- Researchers say they may have found a universal vaccine using llama antibodies.
- Further testing to ensure human safety is still needed.
Llamas may be the key to preventing the flu, a new study says.
A team of researchers at California's Scripps Research Institute successfully treated flu-infected mice using llama antibodies extracted from flu-infected llama blood, according to a paper published this week in the journal Science.
Each year, scientists concoct a vaccine based on their best predictions to battle the ever-changing, mutating influenza bug. Unfortunately, the vaccine is not always reliable. Last year, near-record cases of the flu were reported in part because the vaccine turned out to be only 32 percent effective.
"How well the vaccine works can depend in part on the match between the vaccine virus used to produce the vaccine and the circulating viruses that season," the CDC notes on its website. "It’s not possible to predict what viruses will be most predominant during the upcoming season."
For years, scientists have tried to find a universal vaccine that would cover all strains of the deadly virus.
Now, the team of researchers say they have found success using llama antibodies on mice.
"It's very effective, there were 60 different viruses that were used in the challenge and only one wasn't neutralized and that's a virus that doesn't infect humans," Ian Wilson, a Scripps Institute researcher with the study, told the BBC. "The goal here is to provide something that would work from season to season, and also protect you from possible pandemics should they emerge."
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The llama antibodies were effective on the mice because of their tiny size, the scientists said. Mice and human antibodies are much larger than those found in llamas. They believe the smaller llama antibodies are able to infiltrate the cells easier and render the cell ineffective.
The scientists infected the llamas with the flu and chose four of the most potent llama antibodies to create their own synthetically neutralized antibody using elements from each of the four chosen.
That antibody was then tested on mice infected with deadly doses of the disease.
Finding success, the researchers then tried different methods of introducing the antibodies to mice and found that nasal sprays worked best, which means flu injections may also become a thing of the past.
Before that happens, more research is required to be sure the human body does not see the antibodies as foreign invaders and begin attacking them.
Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham who was not involved in the study, told the BBC the treatment, if proven effective, could become "the Holy Grail of influenza.”
