Adjuvant combo shows potential for universal influenza vaccine
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - 08:01
in Health & Medicine
Researchers at National Jewish Health have discovered how to prime a second arm of the immune system to potentially boost influenza vaccine effectiveness. A combination of two adjuvants, chemicals used to boost the effectiveness of some vaccines, induced CD8, or killer, T cells to join antibodies in response to influenza infection. Since the killer T cells targeted a highly conserved protein that does not change from year to year, the adjuvant strategy suggests potential for a universal flu vaccine.