Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
‘Nanoparticle’ Flu Vaccine Could Be an Advance
Scientists have used nanotechnology to create a flu vaccine that may be quicker to develop and more adaptable to changing flu seasons.
“This is, I believe, an important advance,” Dr. Tony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC News.
Researchers at the institute developed the new vaccine, which is made of nanoparticles that self- assemble under laboratory conditions into an “impostor” of the flu virus. This method gets around the traditional method of using a weakened form of live virus that’s then grown laboriously over a period of months in chicken eggs, the researchers said.
Use of live virus makes the flu shot’s effectiveness less predictable, since the pathogen mutates constantly.
The new technology uses a piece of the flu virus called hemagglutinin, which is then fused with a piece of a compound called ferritin that naturally forms nanoparticles. These nanoparticles end up resembling the hemagluttinin found on the influenza virus.
“They look like flu. They react with [immune system] antibodies like flu,” researcher Dr. Gary Nabel told NBC. Nabel, who now works for vaccine maker Sanofi, worked at NIAID previously and helped develop the new vaccine. His team reported their findings in the journal Nature.
According to Nabel, without the need to grow virus in chicken eggs, the speed at which seasonal vaccines could be created would be drastically reduced — perhaps to just a week or two.
And Fauci said such vaccines might protect against a wide variety of flu strains.
“To me, this is an important step toward the development of a universal flu vaccine,” he told NBC. “The definition of a universal flu vaccine is it covers wide range [of virus strains] and you wouldn’t necessarily need to get a new one each year.”
So far, the new shot has worked in ferrets, which are considered close models to humans in terms of their reactions to flu. Researchers are working on a version that could work in people.
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Illnesses in Alabama Were Just Cases of Flu, Colds or Pneumonia
A respiratory illness that hospitalized five people and killed two others in southeast Alabama was actually cases of the flu, a cold virus or pneumonia, state health officials reported.
Experts there had feared that viruses that have been behind recent overseas outbreaks were at the root of the Alabama cases.
“This is good news,” state health officer Dr. Don Williamson said in a press release Thursday, CBS reported. “Testing has ruled out avian flu and novel coronavirus.”
Laboratory tests from samples taken from the seven patients had been conducted by state and local health officials, in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The lab samples revealed a combination of influenza A, rhinovirus (the virus associated with the common cold), and bacterial pneumonia, according to CBS.