Universal flu vaccine is a step closer after discovery of natural antibody

The discovery of a natural antibody could help to bring about a universal flu vaccine, according to the latest science news.

Experts at The Scripps Research Institute and the Dutch biopharmaceutical firm Crucell have said that through animal tests, they found an antibody which can prevent or cure infections with a broad variety of influenza viruses.

Findings published in the Science Express journal show that influenza subtypes were neutralized when pitted against the new antibody.

"Together this antibody and the one we reported in 2009 have the potential to protect people against most influenza viruses," commented Ian Wilson, Hansen professor of Structural Biology and a member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research.

Damian Ekiert, a graduate from the Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology, said that the main goal of the experiment was to find and attack relatively unvarying and functionally important structures on flu viruses.

Recently, it was reported that Queensland, Australia, had recorded a six-fold increase in influenza cases in recent days.