Vaccine In Development That Protects Against Swine, Human, And Bird Flu Could Eliminate Annual Shots 

New vaccine research and development from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln could remove the need for an annual flu shot with a new vaccine strategy that would protect humans from not only influenza, but the H1N1 swine flu, as well as the bird flu. 

The research entitled “Epitope-Optimized Vaccine Elicits Cross-Species Immunity Against Influenza A Virus,” was recently published in Nature Communications.

Embed from Getty Images

“This research sets the stage for developing universal influenza vaccines so people won’t have to go to the doctor and get a flu shot every year,” said Virologist Eric Weaver, who worked with his team to develop this research. 

“This vaccine will protect you against the different strains that are out there.”

The research showed that swine that were vaccinated with the immunogens designed by Weaver and his team showed no signs of sickness after being exposed to their commonly circulating flu strain. The swine maintained their immune response throughout study, and Weaver said that post-experiment analysis showed the immunity would be maintained for a decade. 

The team named their new immunization the Epigraph Vaccine after the computer software they used to design it. The Epigraph vaccine was shown to outperform commercial vaccines used throughout the pork industry to protect swine from influenza. 

The vaccine was shown to protect against both H1 and H3 swine flu variants. The H1 variant is detected twice as often as the H3 variant, according to Weaver, and they contain nearly three times more genetic diversity. 

“This H1 subtype is the largest and most genetically diverse subtype in pigs. It’s also among the viruses that jumped from swine to humans to cause the 2009 swine flu pandemic. It’s a big target and one of the harder targets to hit,” Weaver said.

Embed from Getty Images

The influenza A virus consistently infects around 15% of the human population and causes thousands of deaths each year. While current vaccines don’t provide long term protection due to the virus’s rapid mutations and genetic diversity, getting the annual flu shot does offer elevated protection. 

Influenza also impacts a multitude of species which allows the virus to mutate and can more easily be transmitted to humans. Swine, for example, are vulnerable to both human and bird flu viruses, which led to the 2009 swine flu pandemic. 

“If we can prevent influenza in swine, we can also prevent zoonotic jumps from avians to swine to humans, or from swine directly to humans. We could basically cut off this evolutionary arsenal or advantage that the virus has. The ultimate goal is to eliminate or eradicate influenza,” Weaver explained.

Weaver’s new patented vaccine strategy utilized the Epigraph software to analyze the genetic codes of more than 6,000 strains of influenza that occurred from 1920 to 2021. The team then created a vaccine cocktail representing their most common regions on the virus that triggers the immune response. 

Data analysis then showed the vaccines provided protection for human influenza varieties that appeared throughout the past 20 years as well as swine influenza varieties. 

“That’s an incredibly powerful thing. The ultimate goal would be to have a significant impact on the disease burden in our society,” Weaver stated. 

“Our ability to understand how viruses evolve has increased exponentially in the past 20 years. What I see on the horizon is a third wave, where we go from good vaccines to universal lifelong vaccines.”

For Weaver and his team, the next steps for continuing to develop this vaccine is to test it for protection against both H1 and H3 strains of influenza, and gain a partnership with a biotechnology company to pursue a human vaccine. 

“We do the most stringent controls that we can possibly do, because we want to be absolutely certain—and I have no doubt that this vaccine is better than the current vaccines,” he said.