With the widespread shortage of the H1N1 vaccine, scientists are seeking faster and better ways to produce flu vaccine.

The traditional method, used for more than 50 years, involves growing a modified version of the current season’s flu virus in chicken eggs. The virus replicates inside the chicken egg and is harvested. The whole process, from vaccine development to harvestation, takes around five months.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky

Viruses are essentially DNA surrounded by a protein coat. Researchers are seeking a protein in the virus coat that the immune system will notice and treat as foreign. The next time someone around you sneezes and you inhale the flu virus, the immune system will recognize the coat protein and attack the virus. Although this sounds simple, coming up with the appropriate protein is extremely difficult.

One possible way of introducing this protein is to take the gene that builds the protein coat on the flu virus and incorporate it into a harmless virus, which is then introduced into the body. The immune system becomes acquainted with protein coat of the flu virus, but you don’t become ill. The immune system will now recognize and attack the harmful flu virus the next time you come into contact with it.

Another possibility is injected the “naked DNA” of the flu virus into the body. The body’s own cells will take up the DNA and produce the coat protein, essentially doing the job of the chicken eggs that are currently used. It greatly accelerates the process and eliminates the worry for those with egg allergies.

The ultimate goal is to develop a universal flu vaccine from a protein that is contained within all flu viruses. Viruses mutate and change slightly each year, which is why yearly flu vaccines are necessary. “We’re not anywhere near close to that, but the concepts are starting to fall into place,” says Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. [NPR]

DNAWellnessinfo.com Resource: http://bit.ly/5PNPSC

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