Researchers have detected antibodies that can defeat all types of influenza A
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Employees of the National Institute of Medical Research in London have discovered a previously unknown type of antibodies that can neutralize all types of influenza A virus (including avian and porcine).
As the researchers write in an article in the journal Science, antibodies were found in the blood of a patient with swine flu. And for today require further study and clinical trials, which will allow to develop a medicine for the treatment and prevention of this type of influenza.
Antibody FI6 was discovered by biologists under the direction of John Skechel, the microorganism equally effectively neutralizes all varieties of the influenza A virus. This antibody binds to a special site in hemagglutinin, the key protein of the virus envelope, by which it attaches to the cell and infects it. The critical importance of this site in the process of attachment to the cell ensures high safety of this protein chain between strains of the virus.
Every year, flu epidemics take the lives of many thousands of patients. The fight against the flu is complicated by the fact that there are three varieties of this virus - A, B and C, which makes it difficult to predict which type of virus will be most widespread next year. In addition, vaccination allows the development of immunity to only one or more strains of the influenza virus.
The most dangerous are influenza viruses belonging to type A. The varieties of this virus are divided into groups A1 and A2.
When an influenza virus enters the human body, the immune system begins to produce many different antibodies, trying to find the key for neutralizing hemagglutinin. After such a key has been found, immune cells stop producing other types of antibodies and switch to release the desired antibody.
John Skelhel and his colleagues used the same mechanism. Biologists grew populations of immune cells derived from the blood of influenza patients. Each cell culture synthesized only one type of antibody. Scientists had to go through 104 thousand samples before they found the antibody FI6.
The blood sample from which these antibodies were isolated and the cells that synthesized them was obtained in 2009 from one of the patients with swine influenza H1N1. As the scientists write, this compound is able to bind and neutralize all 16 basic types of hemagglutinin, which is present in the envelopes of all strains of influenza type A.
FI6 binds to the key region of the protein and prevents its binding to areas of the cell membrane. The researchers developed on its basis a more effective and safe antibody FI6-v3, the effectiveness of which they tested in several populations of mice and ferrets, infected with swine and avian influenza.
The experiment showed that the pre-introduced antibodies completely neutralized the influenza virus, and the injection of FI6-v3 after several days of illness greatly facilitated its course and allowed rodents and ferrets to survive. "The results of prevention and therapy with FI6 allow us to recognize that this antibody is the first example of a remedy that can be used to neutralize all types of influenza A viruses," the scientists conclude.
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