A Longer-Lasting Flu Vaccine Shows Promise in Tests

Scientists are reporting early success on a vaccine that could spare many people from having to get flu shots every year.

The standard flu vaccine has to be redesigned each year to counter new variants of the virus. But the new approach is designed to protect against many variants simultaneously, so one injection may work over several flu seasons.

Scientists from Merck Research Laboratories report on tests in ferrets in the June issue of the journal Nature Medicine.

“It looks like it works quite well,” said vaccine expert John Quarles of Texas A&M; University.

The new strategy is called a DNA vaccine. The same approach may be useful against the AIDS virus, researchers said.

In a standard flu vaccine, a person is injected with dead virus or pieces of virus. The immune system then makes antibodies to proteins on the surface of the virus, so if the real germ shows up, the antibodies latch on to those proteins and prevent infection.

The new vaccine would have selected genes for proteins that appear on the surface or inside the virus. A person’s own body would then make the virus proteins.