A new vaccine that can help fight diverse strains of the flu and protect one against flu have been found, claims a research.
"The ultimate goal is to be able to vaccinate once and provide lifelong protection," said lead author Eric Weaver from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied four major flu strains- H1, H2, H3, and H5. This analysis has been published in the journal Scientific.
In a study, the researchers used mice and infected them with fatal doses of 9 diverse flu viruses primarily with H1N1, H3N1, H3N2, and H5N1. Those mice given the respiratory disease shots died once they were exposed to identical doses of flu.
After the experiment, the scientists now are looking forward to conducting more research in order to see whether or not the same vaccine might be applicable to humans too.
Scientists used the flu viruses' ancestral genes as a unique way to dig out the positive result out of it. Traditional flu shot basically contains feeble and dead version of flu viruses. Once it has been injected, these specific viruses trigger the body's immune system to go against proteins which move away from the surface of the flu virus.
Apart from the above target, researchers are using different strategies to create a global flu shot vaccine that could target the stem of the protein which has got less chance of changing seasonally.
Flu viruses mutating rapidly within a short period of time is the major problem faced by researchers, thus confusing them on the characteristic of the flu which basically changes with each passing year. Every annual flu shot is formed based on flu strains that the scientists predict for every year.
