Flu kills. Each year since 2010, as many as 79,000 people have died from influenza. That’s often because the vaccine doesn’t cover every strain of the virus. Two Texas Tech researchers hope to change that.
The National Institutes of Health have awarded Harvinder Gill, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Steve Presley, a professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Toxicology, nearly $3.5 million over five years to develop a universal vaccine that would cover any flu strain.
Presley says he believes the universal vaccine can become the reality.
“The universal flu vaccine is kind of the holy grail, that’s what’s encourage when I get an NIH grant because there’s thousands and thousands people trying to get funding to do it, and we got significant funding to do it. WE have to make progress to get next year’s funding, but I think that’s really promising. I’m not a virologist, but it makes logical sense that this might work,” Presley says.
Gill says the research will focus protein segments on the surface of Type A and Type B influenzas that don’t significantly change from strain to strain. These protein segments will be the target for the vaccine-induced immune response.
“To make a universal flu vaccine, you have to come up with a protein that does not change across the different strains. The flu virus has three main proteins on the surface, of those, one is called M2. That protein is very concerned in the influenza A strains, they remain constant. That could be one target, protein to use,” Gill says.
The M2 protein on Type A influenza is 23 amino acids long and the other protein, neuraminidase, is found on the surface of both Type A and Type B virus. The neuraminidase protein peptide is shorter.
“The neuraminidase, the N—so if you hear in the news H1N1—the N protein, there are nine amino acids. A very small sequence, which is concerned in all the type A and type B,” Gill says.
A full protein is usually made up of hundreds of amino acids. The shorter strands of M2 and neuraminidase alone are not enough to provoke a strong immune response to a virus. But Gill is confident he’s found a way to generate a strong enough response.
“A major part of our contribution was how do you make it amino-genic, that was by attaching them to gold particles, which has not been done before. We are ahead in the sense that we’ve tested in mice at least that the concept works. So the same conserved sequence, used in the context of the gold particles, it is protective against five strands, including the H1N1…” Gill says.
Presley’s involvement includes safeguarding many of the flu virus samples to be used in the research. He oversees the university’s biosafety level three lab.
“We need someone who has the expertise, which he has to work with all the different strains that are dangerous. We cannot bring it out. We need to have it in a very controlled environment, and Steve has this.”
Gill says the less dangerous virus strains will be kept safely on campus. The pair will be purchasing about 100 black-footed ferrets for testing for the universal vaccine, which they said is still at least 10 years away from becoming reality.
Another benefit to the vaccine the two have been developing is it wouldn’t require refrigeration, allowing for its transport to places without it.
Presley explains that flu viruses are highly adept at changing, which makes it difficult for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to accurately prepare each year’s vaccine.
“The flu strains, they shift and drift every year out of pigs and ducks, to where they become available to humans. That’s why it’s always changing,” Presley says.
