The Path To A Universal Flu Vaccine According To The NIAID
Officials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) unveiled the Institute’s strategic plan for developing a universal influenza vaccine — a vaccine that could protect all age groups against several different influenza strains, including those might cause a pandemic. A team from the NIAID, headed by the director, Anthony Fauci, MD, based the plan on discussions from a workshop last June 2017. They published the strategy in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
The strategy lays out four main criteria for a universal flu vaccine:
- It should be at least 75% effective,
- It should protect against group 1 and group 2 influenza A viruses (influenza B would be a secondary target),
- It should protect for at least 1 year,
- It should be suitable for all age-groups.
NIAID’s strategic plan focuses on three main areas of flu research:
- Transmission, natural history, and pathogenesis using prospective cohorts. The group said there are still unanswered questions about the contributions of aerosols, droplets, and fomites in the spread of flu. A better understanding of what drives disease severity could shed some light on new approaches to developing better vaccines.
- Influenza immunity and correlates of protection. The role of T cell-mediated immunity has not received a lot of research attention, however, it may offer a new pathway for broad protection in a universal vaccine. The authors wrote that immunity research should also focus on host factors, such as how exposure to flu strains early in life might offer some protection against exposure to similar strains later in life, this is known as “immunologic imprinting.”
- Strategies in vaccine design to prompt broad, protective immune responses including the use of adjuvants or higher doses of antigens. This will also include looking for new vaccine candidates that could come from a clearer understanding of humoral and T cell responses. New approaches might also include more stable or conserved targets, such as the hemagglutinin stem, the viral neuraminidase, the ectodomain of the ion channel M2, or the internal viral proteins.
The plan comes out amid a tough and deadly flu season dominated by the problematic H3N2 strain.
So far during the 2017–2018, there have been 161,129 positive tests performed by clinical laboratories and 35,544 positive tests performed by public health laboratories since Oct. 1, 2017, according to the CDC website.
The less than optimal protection by current flu vaccines and the need for better ones that can offer long-lasting protection against a range of flu strains, even a new pandemic one, has likewise caught the attention of some US senators who shared a proposal to invest $1 billion in research over the next 5 years to create a universal flu vaccine. The bill, called the Flu Vaccine Act, was introduced on Feb 15 by Ed Markey (D-Mass.), with seven Senate cosponsors: Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
NIAID officials emphasize that close collaboration and coordination among the many disciplines in government, philanthropies, academia, and the private sector will be crucial to achieving the goal.
Meanwhile, even though CDC reports that the flu season has peaked, flu is still rampant across the United States. The flu is still claiming lives as 17 more pediatric deaths were reported by the CDC, bringing the total to 114. Influenza is still “widespread” in 45 states and Puerto Rico and as long as the flu is circulating so health officials are saying it is not too late to get vaccinated. Looking at past seasons, the flu is likely to be spreading for 4 to 6 more weeks.
