Oregon researchers narrow on path to universal flu vaccine

• But by harnessing "killer T cells," OHSU hopes the vaccine it is developing will provide lifetime protection against all influenza with just one shot, lead researcher Jonah Sacha told Axios.

How it works: T cells have memory and can recognize the internal, unchanging parts of flu viruses, rather than just the ever-changing exterior, but they have not been used in vaccines before because they take a long time to mobilize after they've done their job, Sacha said.

• The vaccine method Sacha and his team are working on stitches pieces of the influenza virus with a common herpes virus, which infects most people and produces mild or no symptoms but elicits a T cell response.
• "It persists at very low levels, and so those T cells that you make will always be out in the field operating and will target influenza as soon as it comes into the body," he said.
• This approach is being used in an OHSU-led clinical trial against HIV.

State of play: A study from last year, in which researchers inoculated primates with the developed vaccine against the 1918 influenza virus, showed promising results and a path to clinical trials, Sacha said.

• By testing in primates, researchers can evaluate both the efficacy and the safety of a vaccine approach with more confidence that the results will translate to humans.

The bottom line: A universal flu vaccine is still years away, but the ongoing evolution of worrisome strains serves as a reminder to Sacha of "the holy grail we're chasing."