Word: viruses
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...region’s constancy would allow for a one-time vaccine that would not be out-moded by rapid changes in viral structure. Current flu vaccines must change every year to accommodate mutations within the virus...
...virus...
...antibodies, identified at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, target a mutation-resistant region on the surface protein Hemagglutenin, which provides a crucial link between the many strains of influenza virus...
...strategy takes a bead on a much smaller region, closer to the soles of the viral bobble head's feet, where the virus fuses to the cell it infects. These regions mutate less rapidly, and in fact, in the recent study in mice, published in the current issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, they did not mutate at all. "If we use this approach judiciously, we should be able to keep this pocket conserved and not develop drug resistance to it," says Dr. Wayne Marasco of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, a co-author of the paper. "The exciting part...
...only can these antibodies potentially treat an infection once it has already occurred - by disabling the viruses and preventing them from infecting additional healthy cells - they can also position themselves in the binding site of the cells themselves, blocking the virus at the receiving end too. One more advantage of this viral weak spot: it's the same on the vast majority of influenza strains circulating each year, including the ones responsible for the bird flu, H5N1. That makes this antibody approach potentially useful not only against seasonal flu but against pandemic strains as well. (See pictures of the bird...