Page 20 - Abacoa Community News - February '22

Page 20, Abacoa
scieNce oN the cUttiNg edge

The Scripps Research Institute News

No More Annual Flu system to generate repertoire.” Importantly, these antibodies appear to be fairly
common in people, and belong to a class of antibodies that
antibodies that
Shot? Scripps Research recognize the head any person’s body can produce – an important consideration in
And Collaborators Find of hemagglutinin designing a vaccine to spur their development.
“The human immune system already has the ability to make

(HA), a protein that
New Target For Universal extends outward antibodies to this epitope, so it’s just a matter of applying modern
protein engineering methods to make a vaccine that can induce
from the surface of
Influenza Vaccine the flu virus. The head is the most accessible region of HA, those antibodies in sufficient numbers,” adds Guthmiller.

The researchers say that future, improved iterations of a
making it a good target for the immune system; unfortunately,
A new antibody discovered in the blood of some people it is also one of the most variable. From year to year, the head universal vaccine could more purposefully aim to generate
vaccinated against or infected with influenza can recognize of HA often mutates, necessitating new vaccines. anchor antibodies. Until now, scientists designing universal
a broad variety of flu viruses. Researchers have designed experimental influenza vaccines vaccines hadn’t paid attention to whether the anchor region of
Scientists at Scripps Research, University of Chicago and to be more universal, spurring the body to create antibodies the stem was included as a target. Ideally, a universal influenza
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a new against the less-variable stalk region of HA, which extends like vaccine will lead to antibodies against multiple sections of the
Achilles’ heel of influenza virus, making progress in the quest a stem between the influenza virion and the HA head. Some of virus – such as both the HA anchor and the stalk – to increase
for a universal flu vaccine. Antibodies against a long-ignored these universal flu vaccines are currently in early clinical trials. protection to evolving viruses.
section of the virus, which the team dubbed the anchor, have the In the new study, a collaborative team of scientists The researchers are planning future studies on how to design
potential to recognize a broad variety of flu strains, even as the characterized 358 different antibodies present in the blood of a vaccine that most directly targets the HA anchor of different
virus mutates from year to year, they reported Dec. 23, 2021 in people who had either been given a seasonal influenza vaccine, influenza strains.
the journal Nature. were in a Phase I trial for an experimental, universal influenza In addition to Han and Ward, authors of the study, “Broadly
“It’s always very exciting to discover a new site of vaccine, or had been naturally infected with influenza. neutralizing antibodies target a hemagglutinin anchor epitope,”
vulnerability on a virus because it paves the way for rational Many of the antibodies present in the blood of participants include Sara Richey and Alba Torrents de la Pena of Scripps;
vaccine design,” says co-senior author Andrew Ward, Ph.D., were antibodies already known to recognize either the HA Jenna Guthmiller, Henry Utset, Lei Li, Linda Yu-Ling Lan,
professor of integrative structural and computational biology at head or stalk. But a collection of new antibodies stood out; the Carole Henry, Christopher Stamper, Olivia Stovicek, Haley
Scripps Research. “It also demonstrates that despite all the years antibodies bound to the very bottom of the stalk, near where each Dugan, Nai-Ying Zheng, Micah Tepora, Dalia Bitar, Siriruk
and effort of influenza vaccine research there are still new things HA molecule is attached to the membrane of the flu virion. Changrob, Min Huang and Patrick Wilson of University of
to discover.” The co-first authors of the manuscript – Julianna Han, a staff Chicago; Meagan McMahon, George O’Dell, Alec Freyn,
“By identifying sites of vulnerability to antibodies that are scientist in the Ward lab, and Jenna Guthmiller, a postdoctoral Fatima Amanat, Victoria Rosado, Shirin Strohmeier, Adolfo
shared by large numbers of variant influenza strains we can fellow at the University of Chicago – named this section of HA Garcia-Sastre, Raffael Nachbagauer, Peter Palese and Florian
design vaccines that are less affected by viral mutations,” says the anchor, and began studying it further. In all, the scientists Krammer of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Monica
study co-senior author Patrick Wilson, M.D., who was previously identified 50 different antibodies to the HA anchor, from a total Fernandez-Quintero and Klaus Liedl of University of Innsbruck;
at the University of Chicago and recently recruited to Weill of 21 individuals. The antibodies, they discovered, recognized a Lauren Gentles and Jesse Bloom of Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Cornell Medicine as a professor of pediatrics and a scientist in variety of H1 influenza viruses, which account for many seasonal Research Center; and Lynda Coughlan of University of Maryland
the institution’s Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s flu strains. Some of the antibodies were also able to recognize School of Medicine.
Health. “The anchor antibodies we describe bind to such a site. pandemic H2 and H5 strains of influenza in lab tests. And in This work was supported by funding from the National
The antibodies themselves can also be developed as drugs with mice, the antibodies successfully protected against infection by Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (K99AI159136,
broad therapeutic applications.” three different H1 influenza viruses. U19AI082724, U19AI109946, U19AI057266, P01AI097092,
In a typical year, influenza affects more than 20 million “In order to increase our protection to these highly mutating R01AI145870-01, R21AI146529, and T32AI007244-36),
people in the United States and leads to more than 20,000 viruses, we need to have as many tools as we can,” says Han.
deaths. Vaccines against influenza typically coax the immune “This discovery adds one more highly potent target to our The Scripps Research Institute News on page 21

See It THE BRITPACK ORCHESTRA EXPERIENCE
THE
ACK
BRITP
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
Live!
FEATURING

Get your tickets today!
Monday - Friday 10AM - 5PM
& one hour prior to curtain
11051 Campus Drive, Palm Beach Gardens
(561) 207-5900 I EisseyCampusTheatre.org
February 16 8PM February 25 8PM

Celebrating the Music of
LINDA RONSTADT

Featuring Paula Hanke & Peggy Ratusz

March 14 8PM March 16 8PM April 6 8PM