Flu as we all know is a common condition that all of us encounter many a times during our stay on the earth or say our life span. You would rarely find a human who has not been a victim of this health condition. But, there is some good news around this condition. A recent study of a new vaccine containing ancestral flue virus genes is a ray of hope for researchers in the direction of life long protection against flu.
The vaccine was tested on mice and gave 100 percent results. The vaccine was so effective that even after being given nine different flu virus dozes of lethal nature they survived. The best part was they didn’t even fall sick.
Comparatively those mice that were given the traditional shots of flu did fall sick after these lethal doses were given to them and even died. Though, the study is primarily conducted on mice and it would be too early to say how it worked on humans, there is definitely a ray of hope. The hope that one day a universal flu vaccine is developed that would provide long term rather life long protection against flu viruses.
Though even after trying out the researchers still haven’t really succeeded in creating a vaccine that could offer life long protection because of the reason that flu viruses mutate fast. A recent study though used a different approach. The vaccine they created had ancestral and consensus flu genes from four main strain types namely H1 to H5. The delivery of these genes was done using adenovirus, the one responsible for causing common cold but an altered version of it that was harmless and had the ability to carry ancestral genes.
The results as mentioned were affirmative as these mice survived heavy doses of H1N1, H3N1, H3N2 and H5N1 which can easily kill the mice. Apparently 100% of the vaccinated mice survived.
Well, its too early to confirm the success but further study on different animals will certainly help the researchers determine the efficacy of the vaccine in terms of long term protection.
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