New antibodies to combat the flu

Each year millions of people around the world are affected by the flu but there are currently only few effective treatment options, the University of Zurich (UZH) reported in a press release. Vaccines also have to be created anew each year as the viral strains that are passed on around the globe are constantly changing. A collaboration between UZH researchers and U.S. scientists has made a discovery that opens up new possibilities for developing better vaccines and more efficient medication to combat the flu. 

“We found that antibodies called IgAs, which are commonly found on mucosal surfaces, can actually protect us from infections in two different ways,” Lars Hangartner, former professor at the Institute of Medical Virology of UZH, explained in the press release. Like the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies stimulated by current vaccines, they feature acquired immunity that specifically recognises and combats pathogens, but in contrast to the IgA antibodies, a special tail at one end of a subtype called IgA1 contains sialic acids, which blocks the part of the virus that allows it to attach to the cells it wants to infect.

However, the IgA molecules are harder to work with than the IgG antibodies. Lars Hangartner, who now works at The Scripps Research Institute in the USA, therefore wants to graft the sialic acid tail of the IgA1 molecule onto an IgG-type antibody. “It would combine the best of both worlds” he says, and “give us a molecule that’s more effective and hardy, and that ultimately may be very useful when it comes to fighting the flu”.