Melbourne -- Australian scientists say a bird flu vaccine is closer to reality thanks to their finding that boosting T-cell immunity can protect humans from the disease.
"The 'Killer T cell' is the hit-man of the immune system," said University of Melbourne Professor Stephen Turner, lead author of the research. "It is able to locate and destroy virus-infected cells in our body helping rid us of infection. Unfortunately, current influenza vaccines are poor at inducing killer T cell immunity. Therefore, we wanted to see if we could improve the current vaccine formulation to induce killer T cells after vaccination."
Turner said he and his team added a compound known to increase immunity to the flu vaccine in an animal model. The addition of that compound promoted significant generation of potent killer T cell immunity and provided protection from infection.
Hong Kong -- A modified vaccine once used to treat smallpox has proven effective in treating mice infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, Hong Kong researchers say.
While human trials are at least two years off, the University of Hong Kong scientists, who worked with U.S. researchers, say the vaccine holds the potential to become a ''safe and effective vaccine that can be rapidly deployed for pre-exposure vaccination of millions of people," Kyodo news service reported Sunday.
The World Health Organization says at least 256 of the 408 people in 15 countries who have contracted the H5N1 bird flu since December 2003 have died. Scientists fear the strain could cause a global epidemic.
The scientists in Hong Kong said Sunday their study, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Immunology, showed a 100 percent survival rate among infected mice treated with the vaccine, Kyodo said. Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health also participated in the study.
