A Llama Antibody Could Be the Key to a Universal Flu Vaccine

When I read about a major break through I always think "Good" and then the cynical devil in my mind always say, "This is just another article about some break though that you read and it never happens or is buried by someone purchasing/owning the rights. Hopefully the little devil is wrong in this case.

Less than a week ago, Roche snagged regulatory approval for Xofluza, a single-dose oral medication, the first new flu treatment approved in 20 years. Now, new research indicates that llamas, the doe-eyed South American pack animal, may hold the key to flu vaccines.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a team from the Scripps Institute in Southern California has been able to take antibodies made by llamas and used them as the basis for a flu vaccine. The llama antibodies are effective enough to work on a wide number of flu viruses, according to the report. The Times reported that the Scripps researchers reported their findings in the latest issue of Science.

See link for rest of the article..

www.biospace.com...

a reply to: 727Sky

Looks promising but like all new discoveries it will prolly be 10 years or more to actually make it into a vaccine.

There is a website phys.org that lists all the new discoveries and it is amazing even though none of the new discoveries will be viable for years.

a reply to: watchandwait410
medicalxpress.com...
Supposedly the Flu kills a half million people every year , world wide..

The team started with prior research showing that llamas produce a unique type of antibody that is able to attach to more vulnerable parts of influenza viruses. They injected test llamas with vaccines that had three different kinds of disabled flu viruses. The vaccine also had a viral surface protein from two other types of flu. Then, once the llamas had produced antibodies to the newly introduced viruses, the researchers harvested them—four types in all. Next, they engineered a gene that expresses a protein composed of nanobodies derived from the four antibodies in the llamas. The final step was splicing the engineered gene into a benign virus.

To test their approach, the researchers created a nasal spray that launched the loaded virus into the nasal cavities of test mice and then tried to infect the mice with 59 different types of flu that infect people. They report that the mega-antibody was successful in warding off every single virus strain tested.

a reply to: 727Sky

That's really neat, but one thought came to mind upon reading this. If this gets approved, what does that mean for the llamas?? Are we going to start having factories where hundreds of llamas are stuck in kennels, constantly having antibodies extracted from them all so people can not be sick??

a reply to: 727Sky

They report that the mega-antibody was successful in warding off every single virus strain tested.

Funny that - they will inadvertently create a super resistant flu - what a great new bio-weapon. Then they'll lay the blame on Doctors for over prescribing or onto anti-vaxxers.

What could possibly go wrong?

Depopulation comes to mind

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

I agree. What if it mutates and turns into a new almost if not impossible to recover from disease? Zombie apocalypse anyone?

Just take a look at the movies. In I am legend with will smith it was the cancer cure that turned everyone into creatures.