Experimental bird flu vaccine
Experimental bird flu vaccine offers strong protection in preclinical trials
A vaccine under development at the University at Buffalo has demonstrated complete protection in mice against a deadly variant of the virus that causes bird flu.
The work, detailed in a study published today (April 17) in the journal Cell Biomaterials, focuses on the H5N1 variant known as 2.3.4.4b, which has caused widespread outbreaks in wild birds and poultry, in addition to infecting dairy cattle, domesticated cats, sea lions and other mammals.
In the study, scientists describe a process they've developed for creating doses with precise amounts of two key proteins – hemagglutinin (H5) and neuraminidase (N1) – that prompt the body's immune system to fight bird flu.
This process – what's known as a "vaccine platform" – could help set the experimental vaccine apart from the handful of bird flu vaccines approved for human use in the U.S. and Europe which, while effective, have focused almost entirely on H5 and not N1.
It's also a potential step toward more potent, versatile and easy-to-produce vaccines that public health officials believe will be needed to counteract evolving bird flu strains that grow resistant to existing vaccines.
"We obviously have a lot more work to do, but the results thus far are extremely encouraging," says the study's lead author Jonathan Lovell, PhD, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UB.
