New frontiers in influenza B research: Breakthrough unveils promising targets for vaccine development
Professor Katherine Kedzierska, Dr Carolien van de Sandt and Tejas Menon, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, have pinpointed fragments from influenza B viruses that consistently trigger immune responses, offering promising avenues for influenza B vaccine development.
Image: The Herald Sun
Over the past week, the pioneering research led by Professor Katherine Kedzierska and her team has garnered widespread attention across various media platforms. Their groundbreaking work has been featured in outlets such as The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Herald Sun. Television coverage by ABC News The World, Channel 7, Nine News as well as various radio programs including ABC Radio, SBS News, 3AW Melbourne and more. Delve deeper to uncover the profound significance of Professor Kedzierska and her team’s discovery–a crucial leap forward in the pursuit finding a revolutionary vaccine treatment for influenza B viruses.
Despite the global burden of influenza B viruses, causing significant illness and mortality, the virus has been significantly understudied, particularly regarding their interaction with the immune system.
Led by Professor Katherine Kedzierska, Head of the Human T cell laboratory located at the Doherty Institute, a team of scientists were able to uncover crucial insights into the virus. Their groundbreaking findings, published in Nature Communications, focused on killer T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells, which play a vital role in the antiviral immune response and explored how these kills target influenza B viruses to fight infection.
Tejas Menon, Graduate Researcher at the Doherty Institute and co-first author of the page described the challenge involved in identifying fragments of the influenza B virus that killer T cells can bind to as like “searching for a needle in a haystack".
“As new variants of a virus emerge, killer T cells can recognise fragments that are unchanged among those influenza variants. This makes killer T cells an attractive immune population to stimulate with vaccines,” explained Mr Menon.
“In the context of influenza B viruses, we were excited to discover nine viral fragments which provoked a strong immune response from killer T cells and remained unchanged in the ‘virus' history’. This finding, reached after sieving through hundreds of influenza B virus particles, which was done in collaboration with Professor Purcell and Dr Illing from Monash University, is a significant advancement in our understanding of influenza B immunity.”
This discovery expanded the previously known fragments from 18 to 28, providing a greater opportunity for vaccine development to prevent severe illness and death from influenza B infections.
The study further sheds light on how immune responses to influenza B viruses vary with age. Thus, provides valuable insight into age-related immune responses to the influenza B virus and how health strategies can be tailored accordingly.
University of Melbourne Dr Carolien van de Sandt, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, a Senior Research Fellow at the Doherty Institute, and co-author of the study said, “as we age, our immune system responds differently to the flu.”
“While we detected killer T cells that recognise influenza B viral fragments across the human lifespan, from young children to the elderly, those T cell responses substantially peaked in adults. This may help explain why this particular age group is protected from severe influenza B infections.”
“Our findings also showed that killer T cells that recognise influenza B viruses have a very good memory, but are not as numerous in elderly people and children. This is fascinating, as children have a higher burden from influenza B than adults and the elderly.”
Professor Kedzierska underscored the clinical significance of the study as a first step towards developing novel, effective T cell-based influenza B vaccines.
“The influenza B viral T cell targets that we have found could be included in new T cell-based vaccines, which could significantly reduce severe cases and death caused by influenza B, especially in children, and alleviate the burden of seasonal influenza epidemics,” said Professor Kedzierska.
Unlike traditional antibody-based vaccines, which target specific strains and require frequent updates, this study explored the potential of T cell-based vaccines, which can potentially provide a broader protection against all variants of influenza B viruses across age groups.
This article was originally published on 30 April 2024 by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection & Immunity (Doherty Institute).
The Doherty Institute is a joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital.