Swine Flu Vaccine Could Cure All Flu for Life

Those who've been hit with virus seem immune to other flus
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 11, 2011 1:16 PM CST
Swine Flu Vaccine Could Cure All Flu for Life
A nurse prepares a vaccine against swine flu in a hospital in Montevideo, Monday, April 5, 2010.   (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Swine flu might hold the key to an all-purpose vaccine that could, with a single injection, protect patients from all flus for the rest of their lives. Researchers in Chicago and Atlanta are set to publish a study finding that those who develop antibodies against swine flu appear to be immune to other flu strains as well. Armed with that knowledge, they believe a super-vaccine could be developed in less than a decade, the Daily Mail reports.

Scientists took flu-fighting antibodies from swine flu patients and injected them into mice, then injected the mice with two other deadly flu strains—which the mice shrugged off. “The result is something like the Holy Grail for flu-vaccine research,” says one University of Chicago researcher. “The surprise was that such a very different influenza strain could lead us to something so widely applicable.” (More swine flu stories.)

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