A bird flu vaccine for humans is being trialled – here’s how it works |
The first ever avian influenza vaccine recently started trials in the UK. This marks a milestone in the prevention of bird flu infections in humans.
The vaccine targets the H5N1 flu strain, which causes severe infections in bird populations worldwide. However, this strain of bird flu virus is also able to spread to humans in rare cases through direct contact with infected birds or poultry products.
This latest trial hopes to test the vaccine in people who are most at risk of acquiring bird flu. This includes people who work in poultry industry and people who are above 65 years of age.
This new bird flu vaccine is an mRNA-based vaccine. This is the same technology that was used in some COVID vaccines.
Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) acts as a messenger between the genes and the microscopic factories inside human cells that produce proteins. It carries a message from the genes to these cellular factories to produce proteins with specific structures.
For instance, mRNA plays a role in producing the enzymes that regulate our metabolism, the haemoglobin that carries oxygen to our tissues and the antibodies that protect us against infections.
Vaccines that use mRNA technology deliver instructions to cellular protein production factories, telling them to produce certain proteins that are normally present on the surface of a specific virus.
By doing so, these vaccines generate a fake disease which is less severe than the actual disease caused by the........