Ghent, Belgium -- A universal influenza vaccine that has been pioneered by researchers from VIB and Ghent University is being tested for the first time on humans by the British-American biotech company Acambis. This vaccine is intended to provide protection against all ‘A’ strains of the virus that causes human influenza, including pandemic strains.
In the 1990s, VIB researchers connected to Ghent University, under the direction of Prof. Emeritus Walter Fiers, invented a universal flu vaccine. One protein on the surface of the influenza virus, the so-called M2 protein, remains unchanged in all human flu viruses known, including the strains that caused the pandemics in the last century. On the basis of the M2-protein they developed a vaccine and successfully tested it on mice and other laboratory animals: the M2 vaccine provided total protection against ‘A’ strains of flu, without side effects.
clipped from: www.eurekalert.org