Avian afflication: A man shows coloured chicks at his backyard in Jakarta. The worst-hit nation from bird flu has been Indonesia, where 105 people have died - but the WHO said last week that there was no evidence that the virus there had mutated into a more dangerous form.
TOKYO: Japanese researchers may have paved the way to develop an all-round vaccine to protect people from bird flu, including potential mutations that could set off a global pandemic.
The new method entails injecting people with a tiny bit of fat known as a liposome. It carries on its surface an antigen, the molecule that triggers a response in the immune system. Current bird flu vaccines rely on the immune system's ability to attack the virus itself, but they become ineffective if the virus mutates.
New target
The new method "targets the inside of the virus, rather than its surface," as the inside structure of the virus rarely changes, said Tetsuya Uchida, lead researcher on the project at the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
"It would stop the virus from replicating itself," he said on Monday. "There is the possibility that this may lead to a vaccine that could work against multiple flu viruses."
More than 200 people have died and poultry flocks have been devastated since avian influenza first broke out in 2003. The worst-hit nation from bird flu has been Indonesia, where 105 people have died.
Human victims consist mostly of people in close contact with sick birds. But the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that millions of people could die worldwide if the virus mutates into a form easily transmissible among humans.
The Japanese researchers have conducted tests on mice which found that the new method was effective on different strains of the bird flu virus.
The study is being jointly conducted by researchers from the national institute, Hokkaido University, Saitama Medical University and NOF Corp., a chemicals company based in Tokyo.
Effective against other influenzas
The stock of NOF posted the maximum allowable single-day gain on Monday following the news. It soared 80 yen, or 20.83 per cent, to 464 yen, bucking an almost two per cent plunge in the headline Nikkei-225 index.
"We have developed a vaccination method that is believed to be effective against avian influenza," NOF said in a statement. "We are continuing the joint study in the hope that it will have universal effect on human influenza as well as a variety of other influenza viruses."
The team aims to start tests using mice implanted with human genes from April, Uchida said, adding that it could be years until their research is put to practical use as a flu vaccine.
The WHO said last week that there was no evidence that the bird flu virus in Indonesia had mutated into a form that could set off a pandemic.
