29 July 2011
The first antibody which can fight all types of the influenza A virus has been discovered, researchers claim.
Experiments on flu-infected mice, published in Science Express, showed the antibody could be used as an "emergency treatment".
It is hoped the development will lead to a "universal vaccine" - currently a new jab has to be made for each winter as the virus changes.
Virologists described the finding as a "good step forward".
Many research groups around the world are trying to develop a universal vaccine. They need to attack something common to all influenza which does not change or mutate.
Human source
It has already been suggested that some people who had swine flu may develop 'super immunity' to other infections.
Scientists from the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill and colleagues in Switzerland looked at more than 100,000 samples of immune cells from patients who had flu or a flu vaccine.
They isolated an antibody - called FI6 - which targeted a protein found on the surface of all influenza A viruses called haemagglutinin.
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