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New research led by Oregon Health & Science University reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine—a so-called "one and done" vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus. The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, tested an OHSU-developed vaccine platform against the virus considered most likely to trigger the next pandemic. Researchers reported the vaccine generated a robust immune response in nonhuman primates that were exposed to the avian H5N1 influenza virus. But the vaccine wasn't based on the contemporary H5N1 virus; instead, the primates were inoculated against the influenza virus of 1918 that...

Data Published in Nature Biotechnology Show Messenger (m)RNA Prophylactic Vaccines Based on CureVac's RNActive® Technology Demonstrate Immunogenicity and Protection Against Influenza Virus Infection -- RNActive Vaccine Technology Allows Fast Production in Response to a Pandemic Scenario -- RNActive Vaccines Are Stable at High Temperatures Which Makes Them Suitable for Easy Worldwide Supply -- RNActive Vaccines May Become a Novel, Broadly Applicable and Easy-to-Handle Prophylactic Class of Vaccine Against Infectious Diseases TUEBINGEN, Germany, Nov. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CureVac GmbH, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of therapies and vaccines based on mRNA, and the German Federal Research...

We've seen promising moves towards developing a universal or near-universal influenza vaccine, but researchers at the Donald P. Shiley BioScience Center have taken a different tack to ward of the crafty virus. Although the flu virus actively keeps the immune system from detecting it for a few days, giving it time to gain a foothold, the researchers have found that a powerful synthetic protein, known as EP67, can kick start the immune system so that it reacts almost immediately to all strains of the virus. Previously, EP67 had primarily been used to help activate the immune response by being added...

The influenza vaccine, which has been strongly recommended for people over 65 for more than four decades, is losing its reputation as an effective way to ward off the virus in the elderly. A growing number of immunologists and epidemiologists say the vaccine probably does not work very well for people over 70, the group that accounts for three-fourths of all flu deaths. The latest blow was a study in The Lancet last month that called into question much of the statistical evidence for the vaccine’s effectiveness. The authors said previous studies had measured the wrong thing: not any actual...

It is almost unbelievable - and surely unacceptable - that the world's most medically advanced nation should suddenly find nearly half of its expected supply of influenza vaccine wiped out by manufacturing problems at a single plant in England. Yet that is the shocking reality that has panicky patients lining up for flu shots that are not available and has price gougers trying to profit from their misery. There is plenty of blame to go around for this fiasco. The primary fault lies with Chiron, an American biotechnology company, based in California, that had planned to supply some 46 million...

FINDINGS Influenza has been added to the recommended schedule of shots for all infants, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that, beginning in fall 2004, all children age 6 months to 23 months, as well as household and out-of-home caregivers for such children, receive an annual influenza vaccine, the CDC said. The CDC had been moving toward the recommendation even before this past flu season, which began early and featured a nasty strain of virus that killed...