A recent article in the LA times discussed the exciting possibility of being able to create a "universal" flu vaccine that could treat multiple common strains of flu. Researchers have recently found a frog from southern India (Hydrophylax bahuvistara) that secretes a protein in the mucous of its skin that aids the immune system in protecting it from harmful infectious agents. These proteins were also found to protect against a wide variety of flu strains. When identifying a strain of flu, there are two key surface proteins that determine the strain. One of the surface proteins, hemagglutinin, has 18 varieties, but one (referred to as H1) is far more common than the rest. The protein found in the mucous of H. bahuvistara was found to kill every flu strain containing H1. With some further digging, the research team studying this species of frog also found additional proteins that not only protect against the flu, but attack existing flu in the body without harming the other body cells.
This means that further development of flu vaccines that somehow utilize the protein from H. bahuvistara could potentially mean the development of a universal flu vaccine that is able to protect against any of the common strains of flu that contain the H1 surface protein. And not only that, but there is the potential to develop a vaccine that can neutralize existing flu in the body and prevent further illness and in some cases, death.
Of course, this is something that will take much more time and research to develop, but the idea of being able to mimic the natural defenses of a frog to help combat flu is an exciting prospect!
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| Hydrophylax bahuvistara |
Original article
2 comments:
This was a great article to read, for one, every season when the flu pathogen decides to come around I always end up being out of school or work for several days and it really sucks. Using proteins found in H. bahuvistara to combat the virus offers great potential to research but I fear that now that this information is made public poachers would go out and start offering ransom for these frogs. Crazy idea, but far too often are amphibians being taken advantage of for the wrong reason. I hope these researchers are able to solve a seasonal epidemic without putting the population of H. bahuvistara in jeopardy. I’m also wondering why that species and not the other. There looks to be two species of the same genus, nonetheless still very cool!
I have a similar question to Matthew's: Why did they choose this particular species of frog? I wonder if other frogs have other pharmaceutical wonders in their mucus. (Also, Matthew, for most folks the flu shot sucks much less than getting the flu!) Hopefully, if this pans out, they would be able to synthesize the protein in the lab so that it can be obtained without harming the frogs.b
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