It’s not necessarily clear which part of the flu virus a potential mRNA vaccine would target. “You need to make sure you’re targeting the right part of the virus,” Scher said. With Covid-19, prominent spike protein Fits the bill But flu viruses are thought to be more complex and mutate faster, meaning if you choose the wrong protein, your shot could be less effective than expected. The upside, Scher suggests, is that mRNA vaccines could help target multiple proteins or parts of proteins on the same virus — a multi-pronged strategy.
And although they are difficult to develop, the speed with which mRNA vaccines can be produced could yield huge benefits. Traditionally, flu vaccines contain inactivated viruses grown in hen eggs. This works quite well, but it takes a long time to make such shots, which means health authorities have to publish in advance their predictions about which flu strains will circulate during the season. winter is coming. If you can produce vaccines faster, you can make more accurate predictions closer to flu season.
Not only that, but researchers hope that a single mRNA shot could one day target 20 or more flu strains at once, eliminating the need for this guesswork. Scher’s colleagues are is working on such a “universal” flu vaccine.
With clinical trials ongoing, it’s still early days. Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, has been following reports of new mRNA flu vaccines emerging with interest but says many questions remain. “We still don’t know how long the immunity they create lasts,” she said.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, agrees, although he notes that all flu shots, regardless of how they are made, have weakened immunity problems – your protection may decline. about 10 percent per month after injection.
A specific concern with mRNA vaccines is that they tend to be more expensive than traditional flu vaccines and must be kept refrigerated, which can make them difficult to deploy in areas with poor infrastructure. least. Researchers are also concerned that they may encounter more vaccine hesitancy. “By its very nature, the mRNA vaccine platform is probably the platform with the most misinformation,” Cruickshank noted. “That can be a disadvantage.”
Jenna Bartley, an assistant professor at UConn Health, a hospital and health research center, said a new wave of mRNA flu vaccines could be especially impactful for older patients. Older people are among those most at risk from flu, but current vaccines are less effective in older age groups because their immune responses tend to be weaker. However, mRNA Covid-19 has had a strong impact, has been shown to be effective in older adults as well as younger people.
It may be some time before an mRNA vaccine for seasonal flu becomes available. However, if H5N1 begins to infect more people, and especially if we see that it is transmitted frequently between humans, it is possible that an mRNA avian flu vaccine could be the first Such is deployed on a large scale. U.S. health officials say H5N1 mRNA vaccine Can be supplied within weeks, if requested.
Osterholm agrees that such a time frame is realistic. He pointed out that the real challenge is getting any new H5N1 vaccine to the people who need it most. Covid-19 vaccines appeared in rich countries and were delivered to people very quickly, he said, but “for much of the world, that’s not happening at all.”
