Best Life: Researchers test new flu vaccine

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Scientists who developed the COVID-19 vaccine used a new technology called mRNA, or messenger RNA.

Now, researchers at Yale University are building on that discovery by using mRNA technology to improve the flu vaccine.

The COVID pandemic required a rapid response from scientists, bringing vaccine technology that had been studied for years front and center.

“I think that when the world had an urgent need for vaccines when the Sars-CoV-2 virus hit, that causes COVID, then it became an opportunity to test this new approach to vaccine development,” said Onyema Ogbuagu, MD Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist, Onyema Ogbuagu.

Traditional vaccines put a weakened germ into our bodies, but mRNA shots, like the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, teach cells to make a protein that triggers an immune response if someone gets infected.

Researchers take the mRNA template and can encode it for the flu or other infectious diseases.

It would also make it easier to tweak during flu season if there’s a different dominant strain circulating.

“It’s a technology that can be deployed pretty rapidly,” said Dr. Ogbuagu.

Dr. Ogbuagu says the mRNA flu vaccine would not necessarily be better than the traditional shot, but it does mean more people could be protected.

“Remember that some individuals do not tolerate the already approved influenza vaccines, so, this gives them another option,” he said.

Another option is to stop or slow the spread of a serious, potentially deadly infectious disease.

The mRNA vaccine is currently being studied in a clinical trial. Dr. Ogbuagu says he expects some preliminary results by March 2023.

The mRNA technology is also being studied for protection against rabies, Lyme disease, Zika, and HIV.

Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Producer; Kirk Manson, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.

Click here to sign up for our newsletter!

Click here to report a spelling or grammar error. Please include the headline.

Copyright 2023 WMC. All rights reserved.