- Email: [email protected]
Twin attack could deliver universal flu vaccine
TIM VERNON/spl
THIS WEEK reported that this vaccine prevented symptoms in some people experimentally infected with flu, and those that did get sick had milder symptoms. Now Colin Butter and colleagues at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, UK, have tested that vaccine, and a similar one made of a different live virus, in chickens (Vaccine, doi.org/jz6). Just as in people, it did not prevent infection, but the birds’ T-cells responded strongly, and less of the virus was passed on. Neither result sounds very impressive. But, says Butter, the key will be combining these vaccines with the classic kind that elicits antibodies. Gilbert reports that her team has tested such a combination in people, and has seen cell-mediated immunity to the universal proteins, as well as –Caught in a trap– antibodies to specific surface proteins. Such a combination could be more than the sum of its parts. In chickens, for example, antibodies could knock out the main virus, while T-cells mop up the variants that evade the antibodies and allow the virus to keep spreading – haven’t had an updated vaccine. and evolving. “We could finally get To end the need for continually vaccines that stop viral spread updated shots, researchers have completely,” says Butter. tried to create a vaccine for all flu, The “universal” proteins would with varied success. also give chickens and humans Most attempts have been “This gives us a chance vaccines designed to make us to beat an adversary produce antibodies, aimed not we’ve been defeated by at flu’s surface proteins, but at time and again” internal proteins that are the same in all flu viruses. Success has been mixed. But there is another some protection against novel flu arm to the immune system. White viruses. And because they work blood cells called T-cells tend to against all flu, such vaccines can attack a wider range of invaders be stockpiled to prepare for than antibodies. If a vaccine pandemics. “I’d love to have a sensitises them to internal flu stockpile of vaccine with both proteins, they could potentially antibody and cell-mediated kill all types of flu. capabilities,” says Thomas Reichert Earlier this year, Sarah Gilbert of the Entropy Research Institute and colleagues at the University in Lincoln, Massachusetts. This of Oxford equipped the virus used gives us a chance to beat an in the smallpox vaccine, which adversary we’ve been defeated by stimulates this cell-mediated time and again. Or as Reichert immunity, with two proteins puts it: “Now that might bring flu common to all flu viruses. They to the negotiating table.” ■
Ideal vaccine combo would floor flu Debora MacKenzie
A UNIVERSAL vaccine. It is the stuff of dreams for flu scientists, but it could be within reach if a new type of vaccine that elicits an immune response from white blood cells is combined with traditional vaccines. Every year, between 250,000 and 500,000 people of all ages die worldwide after getting seasonal flu, partly because few people are vaccinated for it. When a novel human flu evolves in pigs or poultry and becomes pandemic, the numbers can be even higher. The solution is better vaccines for people and animals. Flu comes back every year because when you catch it or are vaccinated, your immune system is only trained to identify the flu’s large surface proteins. These proteins change from year to year, allowing flu to strike again if you 10 | NewScientist | 22/29 December 2012
Black holes get charged in six dimensions BENDING a black hole can juice it up. In extra dimensions, a black hole behaves like a fluid and a solid at the same time, and flexing the solid form may generate an electric field. Although these effects exist only in the theoretical realm, the underlying equations could help us puzzle out some of the real-world properties of the hot, superdense matter that existed right after the big bang. In our four-dimensional universe – three of space and one of time – black holes occupy single points in spacetime. String theory says that if you add a fifth dimension, the black hole becomes a black string. Adding a sixth yields a sheet, or a “black brane”. This multidimensional universe has a boundary, which when described mathematically looks a lot like the equations for quark-gluon plasma, a primordial form of matter that can be created fleetingly in particle accelerators but which can be too chaotic to study directly. Effects at this boundary also apply to black brane behaviour, which means branes can be used to glean the properties of quark-gluon plasma. But describing black branes requires Einstein’s equations, which are complex and unwieldy, says Joan Camps at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the new work. So one trick is to try to describe them as ordinary materials. Previously, physicists showed that black branes follow the mathematics of fluid dynamics, which in turn allowed them to accurately predict the viscosity of quark-gluon plasma. Now Jay Armas of Copenhagen University in Denmark and colleagues have shown that black branes can behave like solids as well. If the black brane has an electric charge, bending it converts mechanical stress into an electric field, as in piezoelectric materials (Physical Review Letters, doi.org/j2c). Armas hopes the results will yield further insights into quarkgluon plasma. Lisa Grossman n
THIS WEEK reported that this vaccine prevented symptoms in some people experimentally infected with flu, and those that did get sick had milder symptoms. Now Colin Butter and colleagues at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, UK, have tested that vaccine, and a similar one made of a different live virus, in chickens (Vaccine, doi.org/jz6). Just as in people, it did not prevent infection, but the birds’ T-cells responded strongly, and less of the virus was passed on. Neither result sounds very impressive. But, says Butter, the key will be combining these vaccines with the classic kind that elicits antibodies. Gilbert reports that her team has tested such a combination in people, and has seen cell-mediated immunity to the universal proteins, as well as –Caught in a trap– antibodies to specific surface proteins. Such a combination could be more than the sum of its parts. In chickens, for example, antibodies could knock out the main virus, while T-cells mop up the variants that evade the antibodies and allow the virus to keep spreading – haven’t had an updated vaccine. and evolving. “We could finally get To end the need for continually vaccines that stop viral spread updated shots, researchers have completely,” says Butter. tried to create a vaccine for all flu, The “universal” proteins would with varied success. also give chickens and humans Most attempts have been “This gives us a chance vaccines designed to make us to beat an adversary produce antibodies, aimed not we’ve been defeated by at flu’s surface proteins, but at time and again” internal proteins that are the same in all flu viruses. Success has been mixed. But there is another some protection against novel flu arm to the immune system. White viruses. And because they work blood cells called T-cells tend to against all flu, such vaccines can attack a wider range of invaders be stockpiled to prepare for than antibodies. If a vaccine pandemics. “I’d love to have a sensitises them to internal flu stockpile of vaccine with both proteins, they could potentially antibody and cell-mediated kill all types of flu. capabilities,” says Thomas Reichert Earlier this year, Sarah Gilbert of the Entropy Research Institute and colleagues at the University in Lincoln, Massachusetts. This of Oxford equipped the virus used gives us a chance to beat an in the smallpox vaccine, which adversary we’ve been defeated by stimulates this cell-mediated time and again. Or as Reichert immunity, with two proteins puts it: “Now that might bring flu common to all flu viruses. They to the negotiating table.” ■
Ideal vaccine combo would floor flu Debora MacKenzie
A UNIVERSAL vaccine. It is the stuff of dreams for flu scientists, but it could be within reach if a new type of vaccine that elicits an immune response from white blood cells is combined with traditional vaccines. Every year, between 250,000 and 500,000 people of all ages die worldwide after getting seasonal flu, partly because few people are vaccinated for it. When a novel human flu evolves in pigs or poultry and becomes pandemic, the numbers can be even higher. The solution is better vaccines for people and animals. Flu comes back every year because when you catch it or are vaccinated, your immune system is only trained to identify the flu’s large surface proteins. These proteins change from year to year, allowing flu to strike again if you 10 | NewScientist | 22/29 December 2012
Black holes get charged in six dimensions BENDING a black hole can juice it up. In extra dimensions, a black hole behaves like a fluid and a solid at the same time, and flexing the solid form may generate an electric field. Although these effects exist only in the theoretical realm, the underlying equations could help us puzzle out some of the real-world properties of the hot, superdense matter that existed right after the big bang. In our four-dimensional universe – three of space and one of time – black holes occupy single points in spacetime. String theory says that if you add a fifth dimension, the black hole becomes a black string. Adding a sixth yields a sheet, or a “black brane”. This multidimensional universe has a boundary, which when described mathematically looks a lot like the equations for quark-gluon plasma, a primordial form of matter that can be created fleetingly in particle accelerators but which can be too chaotic to study directly. Effects at this boundary also apply to black brane behaviour, which means branes can be used to glean the properties of quark-gluon plasma. But describing black branes requires Einstein’s equations, which are complex and unwieldy, says Joan Camps at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the new work. So one trick is to try to describe them as ordinary materials. Previously, physicists showed that black branes follow the mathematics of fluid dynamics, which in turn allowed them to accurately predict the viscosity of quark-gluon plasma. Now Jay Armas of Copenhagen University in Denmark and colleagues have shown that black branes can behave like solids as well. If the black brane has an electric charge, bending it converts mechanical stress into an electric field, as in piezoelectric materials (Physical Review Letters, doi.org/j2c). Armas hopes the results will yield further insights into quarkgluon plasma. Lisa Grossman n