Progress on Universal Flu Vaccine That Could Work Against Any Influenza Strain
With computer models and lab experiments, researchers are working on a strategy for vaccines that could protect against any influenza virus. Each year, the flu…
Flu
Scientists Warn on Flu & COVID-19: Shocking New Research Shows Viruses Can Spread Through the Air on Dust Particles
Influenza viruses can spread through the air on dust, fibers, and other microscopic particles, according to new research from the University of California, Davis and…
Fast-Spreading Mutation Helps Common Flu Subtype Evade Immune Response and Vaccines
Finding highlights the need for flu vaccines to target multiple sites on virus. Strains of a common subtype of influenza virus, H3N2, have almost universally…
Flu Mutation Study: Universal Flu Vaccine May Be More Challenging Than Expected
Many flu strains may be capable of mutating to escape universal-vaccine antibodies. Some common strains of influenza have the potential to mutate to evade broad-acting…
Expert Analysis: When COVID-19 Meets the Next Flu Season
Pulmonologist outlines factors that could determine severity of ’20/’21 flu season. As if the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t scary enough, flu season is not far away. How…
Antiviral Drug Baloxavir Could Control of Flu Outbreaks by Limiting Viral Spread
Antiviral Drug Baloxavir Reduces Transmission of Flu Virus in Animal Study Baloxavir treatment reduced transmission of the flu virus from infected ferrets to healthy ferrets,…
Scientists Create Phage Capsid Nanoparticles That Prevent Viral Infection
A new approach brings the hope of new therapeutic options for suppressing seasonal influenza and avian flu: On the basis of an empty – and…
Your First Battle With Flu Matters Most – Here’s Why
The first strain of influenza virus we encounter during childhood sets the course of how our immune system responds to exposures later in life. How…
Study Shows Needle-Free Flu Vaccine Patch Effective
A new needle-free flu vaccine patch revved up the immune system much like a traditional flu shot without any negative side effects, according to a…
Genetic Mutation Linked to Flu-Related Heart Complications
Study in mice first to connect genes, flu, and cardiovascular problems. People with severe flu sometimes develop life-threatening heart problems, even when their hearts have…
NMR Spectroscopy Reveals How Cholesterol Molecules Bind to a Flu Protein
After a flu virus infects a host cell and hijacks its inner workings to create copies of itself, these copies gather into viral buds that…
New Research Reveals How Flu Viruses Gain the Ability to Spread
In a new study, scientists reveal that the soft palate (the soft tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth) plays a key…
Video Animation on How a Flu Virus Works
This year’s flu, called H3N2, is affecting many people this season and this three minute video with NPR’s Robert Krulwich and medical animator David Bolinsky…
Synthesizing a Flu Vaccine Without the Virus
A new vaccine strategy, which uses synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) instead of proteins purified from viruses, could make flu shots cheaper, safer, and easier to…
Mutated Protein Allows Flu’s Lethality in Some Patients
The flu can be lethal in some patients, but benign in others. The reason that this is the way that flu infections work might be…
Flu Infections and MRSA Combine into Lethal Cocktail in Maryland
MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus can be even deadlier when it is combined with a virulent flu infection. It’s been reported that a family of five…