A prophylactic antibody-based immune therapy protects monkeys against severe disease caused by H5N1 avian flu, University of Pittsburgh and NIH Vaccine Research Center researchers report today in Science . The broadly neutralizing antibody , which recognizes a relatively stable region of the bird flu virus, is less prone to losing its efficacy than antibodies targeting influenza's more mutation -prone structures. This feature ensures that the immune protection can withstand the possible emergence of virus variants, akin to the SARS-CoV-2 mutants that evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, and provide lasting protection against a globally spreading airborne infection.
This type of prevention can be very useful in controlling infection outbreaks and containing the bird flu pandemic. In our testing, the antibody performed beautifully. The antibody could be useful as a prophylactic of severe disease in vulnerable populations, and it also helped us establish the testing threshold for antibody levels in blood, which would be useful for judging the immune protection generated by a universal flu vaccine.
" Douglas Reed, Ph.D., co-corresponding author, associate professor of immunology at Pitt's School of Medicine and the Center for Vaccine Research While, as of January 2025, only one reported case of H5N1 infection in the U.
S has resulted in death, the World Health Organization has reported over 950 cases globally since 1997, with more than half of them fatal. And the concern for wider.