Plaque on Easter Island commemorating the discovery of rapamycinWIKIPEDIA, ANYPODETOSThe immunosuppressant drug rapamycin paradoxically helped to protect mice against a diverse range of influenza viruses after the animals were vaccinated against just one flu strain.
Rachael Keating from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital said it seems that rapamycin steers immune cells away from producing antibodies that strongly target a particular flu strain, in favor of those that block a wide variety of strains. Her results, published today (20 October) in Nature Immunology, could help in the long-running race to develop a universal flu vaccine.
There are many subtypes and strains of influenza, which evolve at great speed and often hybridize into entirely new strains. Current flu vaccines cannot protect against all of these strains, which forces scientists to try and predict those most likely to cause problems in the coming year. This imperfect system often leaves people unprotected against unexpected strains, let alone emerging ones that have the potential to ...
