Influenza vaccine research

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Australian scientists believe they’re leading the way in the race to develop a new vaccine that could prevent an influenza pandemic and could even fight other diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Australian scientists believe they’re leading the way in the race to develop a new vaccine that could prevent an influenza pandemic and could even fight other diseases such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.In a collaborative effort, the team led by Australian Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty is using new research to see how T-cells, which are key components in the body’s immune system, can respond to the influenza virus, which would help guard against its constant mutation.The World Health Organisation says such a breakthrough would certainly protect against any new flu pandemic. But it warns there are many obstacles to overcome before a vaccine would be developed within the next five years.Tanya Nolan reports.TANYA NOLAN: He’s been voted Australian of the year and one of our 100 living national treasures, but it’s his title of Nobel Laureate that’s made Australians so proud, and made him so important to medical science.Professor Peter Doherty’s discovery back in the 1970s, of how t-cells recognise viral infections, has lead scientists one step closer to protecting the world against a flu pandemic, like the one in 1918 which killed 20 million people.His team based in Melbourne is using new “reverse genetics” technology, discovered by colleagues in America, to generate an immune response to the flu virus which uses antibody as well as t-cell mediated responses.Researcher, Doctor Steven Turner.STEVEN TURNER: The power of this technique is that you are able to essentially generate flu strains of ones that you would predict are going to be pandemic strains, and this differs from the ones that are currently out there, because the vaccines that are given now are grown up from strains of influenza that are currently in circulation within the population.TANYA NOLAN: By eliciting a stronger t-cell response, Professor Doherty’s team will be able to help the body attack the flu virus from the inside as well as the outside, targeting the proteins that rarely mutate, and therefore protecting against the constantly changing virus.And if that theory works, doctor Turner believes it could be used to fight other stubborn and potentially fatal diseases.STEVEN TURNER: There is that potential, because we’re doing some very basic science here, we’re asking very basic questions, and what we’ve learned from this model of influenza may be able to subsequently help generate vaccines targeted towards those pathogens.TANYA NOLAN: There are some major obstacles though, as Dr Turner readily admits, the first one being the difficulty researchers testing on mice have had in replicating t-cell success in humans.The World Health Organisation’s Collaborative Centre for Influenza, based in Melbourne, is encouraged by the research and says if a vaccine can provide immunity for more than a year against Type A flu viruses, it certainly has the potential to prevent a pandemic.And clinical virologist Doctor Paul Goldwater says it’s significant research which still faces many challenges, but says any team lead by Professor Doherty is likely to make such a breakthrough.PAUL GOLDWATER: Oh, he’s certainly extremely well qualified to carry this work forward, and I would expect he would have a positive outcome, almost certainly.TANYA NOLAN: In order to prevent a new influenza pandemic, is it essential that any new flu vaccine actually looks at t-cell responses?PAUL GOLDWATER: It’s hard to say at this stage. It’s still very early days. This is probably the most encouraging line of research in terms of flu vaccination, because it will likely cover many different strains that could crop up in the future.HAMISH ROBERTSON: Clinical virologist Dr Paul Goldwater.(Source: ABC, Tuesday, 3 June , 2003 12:32:54, Reporter: Tanya Nolan)