New Approach Targets Stable Virus Proteins for Long-Term Immunity, Immu

Rates of obesity have risen in the United States and researchers predict that the growth of diabetes might also increase among young people. Previous research has found that people over 40 who have these biomarkers are 60–80% more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s.

A new study found that biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s Disease later in life are present in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The authors of the study observed Alzheimer ’s-linked blood plasma biomarkers, as well as elevated amyloid protein levels in brain areas associated with Alzheimer’s in adolescents and young adults with diabetes. 

This research is the first to investigate the presence in adolescents and young adults of these potential pre-clinical signs of Alzheimer’s. The study was recently published in Endocrines and researchers say that the above hypothesis includes insulin dysregulation and hyperglycemia. 

Flu is a common infection that affects billions of people every year. It is responsible for 3-5 million cases of severe illness and more than 2 million respiratory deaths according to the World Health Organisation. Children under the age of five and older adults are people who are more at risk for severe illness or complications. Influenza viruses cause the flu, and these viruses change. Currently, the strategy for protection from the flu is the use of annual flu vaccines. Experts create these vaccines based on what influenza viruses they believe will be most common during flu season. 

Changes in influenza viruses are part of the challenge of creating a long-term vaccine. These changes often occur in the virus’s surface proteins, like hemagglutinin (HA). The researchers of the current study note that annual flu vaccines help create antibodies that target specific areas of HA globular head. However, this region often experiences frequent mutation. 

Thus, if they could figure out a way to target an area of the HA that doesn’t change as much, the stalk, they may be able to create a vaccine that could protect against many flu strains. However, while this has been tried in the past, it has not been effective in also eliciting an effective response in the head region. 

Thus, researchers wanted to create a vaccine that could produce head and stalk-directed antibodies to offer long-term immunity against multiple flu strains. Ultimately, they made an HA antigenic mixture–based vaccine. This vaccine contained a mixture of HA proteins with a conserved stalk region and various mutations at a key site in the head. Researchers in this study tested the vaccine’s effectiveness on mice and ferrets. They compared the response to conventional vaccine approaches. 

They found that their vaccine elicited a better antibody response than the control vaccine option. The vaccine even offered protection when mice were exposed to lethal viral doses. It also offered protection against multiple H1 viral strains. However, this newly developed vaccine appears most effective after receiving an initial prime dose and a booster rather than just a single dose. 

This study has certain limitations since animal testing is different from testing in people. Animals which were included in the study had not experienced any flu exposure previously. Therefore researchers note that some people might have some pre-existing immunity to influenza which might minimize the response to such vaccines.  The study also looked at H1 HA so the impact on other HAs is not clear. However, further study is required to understand more of the underlying mechanism and confirm the response.