Vaccine trial | Duke Health’s new universal flu vaccine trial uses mRNA technology and aims to improve protection

Duke Health is hosting a trial for a new universal flu vaccine trial, with the goal of improving protection against more strains using mRNA technology.

“You just plug that in and you’re kind of good to go. So you’re right – it’s very adaptable and changeable, and also in terms of production, it’s much easier to produce,” said Dr. Emmanuel Walter. from the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, which is a principal investigator and is leading the clinical trials.

According to CDC, there have been at least 27 million cases of the flu this season, including 290,000 hospitalizations and 19,000 deaths. Current vaccines are formulated in advance based on scientists’ predictions of which strain will be the most dominant, allowing manufacturers to produce vaccines.

“” One of the big problems with the flu is the flu changes. By the time we select strains that go into vaccines, by the time flu vaccines are made, sometimes the strain can change some, or even during the season, from September to January or February, the flu strain can also change,” says Walter.

The federal health agency says the effectiveness of the vaccine ranges from 40 to 60 percent each season.

“You want to be able to develop a vaccine or a flu shot that has more cross-protection,” Walter said.

The trial will include 50 adults between the ages of 18 and 49 and was planned before the pandemic, in which the mRNA attracted more attention for use in Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines.

“We need a better flu vaccine. One that provides better protection, one that would allow us to pivot quickly if we had a problem like the one we had in 2008 where we have a mismatch between what’s in the vaccine and what’s actually circulating,” said Dr. Jeb Teichman, a retired pediatrician who called his outlook a “game changer” while expressing concern that misinformation surrounding mRNA is impacting vaccination rates.

The issue is personal to Teichman, whose son Brent died of the flu in 2019 when he was 29. While Brent had planned to get vaccinated, he hadn’t before he was infected.

“I asked them to hold the phone so I could hear the people at EMS trying to revive my son. Calling round after round of epinephrine. I could hear the monitors beeping to this day when I close my eyes at night Teichman said, adding that his son was otherwise healthy at the time of his death.

He now works with the nonprofit advocacy group Families Fighting Flu, which promotes education, awareness and vaccinations.

“That’s what I do now. It’s my son’s legacy, talking about the flu and vaccinations in general,” Teichman said.

During phase 1 of the trial, participants will be followed for a year and will receive different dosage levels, with a portion of the participants being used as a control group with the current vaccine. Researchers will study the vaccine’s safety and immune response, including its resistance if the virus changes. Based on these results, it could be expanded to include other age groups.

FDA authorizes first at-home test capable of detecting both flu and COVID-19