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Do you suffer from the flu every winter? A new shot may protect you for years

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Researchers are trying to develop a new influenza shot, which could mean just one jab will protect you for many flu seasons.
US researchers may be on their way to developing a new influenza shot, which could mean just one jab will protect you for many flu seasons to come. David Putnam and Matt DeLisa from the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering in Cornell’s Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering have been researching strains of the influenza, or flu, virus, which change every year because some of the proteins in the virus mutate.

However, as some proteins stay the same, the pair have been able to take one of the Matrix-2 (M2) protein, and attempt to package it in a controlled-release “capsule” to make a new flu shot. Their hope is that the new shot will be a quick-acting, long-lasting, multi-strain vaccine against influenzaA, and would mean maybe just one jab would be sufficient for protection.

The influenza A virus can be described as a “moving target” as it changes from year to year and can morph into a pandemic strain — meaning it is infectious across a large region — which can put the general population at risk. The new bacterial outer membrane vesicle (OMV) capsule, which has been engineered from nonpathogenic E. coli and has an outer surface that mimics the cell from which it originated, has now been tested by the team on mice to assess its efficacy against the virus.

OMVs have already shown to have potential for protecting against other deadly pathogens. As the M2 protein is found in the influenza sequence in birds, pigs and humans, the group took two sequences from birds, one from pigs and one from humans, and brought them together into one multi-target antigen. “So even if, say, the human strain mutates,” Putnam said, “we know where it came from and it’s going to look like the other two. We kind of covered all the bases.”

The pair then gave the vaccine to mice infected with the influenza A virus. They found that those who were given the OMV vaccine developed high antibody counts just four weeks after vaccination, whereas mice given a typical multishot vaccine regimen developed antibodies after eight weeks. In addition, the results also showed the effects of the OMV vaccine were long-lasting, with the team observing that even after six months, all of the mice given the OMV vaccine survived a lethal influenza A infection. As six months is approximately 25% of the typical life expectancy for a mouse, Putnam believes it is likely that the OMV vaccine would be long-lasting for humans, too.

“Even if we have to give a booster shot every 10 years, like tetanus, that’s still very good,” he said. The findings can be found published online in the journal Vaccine.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/health/do-you-suffer-from-the-flu-every-winter-a-new-shot-may-protect-you-for-years/story-OwyoDv1jQxoaWe5PF8jkkM.html

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Why heart attacks are more prevalent in winters

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According to a study seasonal-dependent behaviours such as reduced physical activity and dietary changes could also play a role in the increased occurrence of heart attack during colder weather.

The body responds to cold by constricting superficial blood vessels, which decreases thermal conduction in the skin and subsequently increases arterial blood pressure. Other responses are shivering and increased heart rate, which raise the metabolic rate and in turn increase body temperature.

The risk of suffering a heart attack is more likely to peak in the winter season and decline in summers because air temperature acts as an external trigger for the life threatening disease, an analysis has shown. The findings revealed that the average number of heart attacks per day was significantly higher during colder temperatures as compared to warmer.
When the daily temperature dropped to less than zero degree Celsius, the average rate of heart attacks a day peaked to four, as compared to when it was above 10 degrees. Furthermore, the occurrence of heart attacks increased with higher wind velocities, limited sunshine duration and higher air humidity.

“There is seasonal variation in the occurrence of heart attack, with incidence declining in summer and peaking in winter,” said lead author Moman A. Mohammad, from the Lund University in Sweden. “Our results consistently showed a higher occurrence of heart attacks in sub-zero temperatures. The findings were the same across a large range of patient subgroups, and at national as well as regional levels, suggesting that air temperature is a trigger for heart attacks,” Mohammad added.
The body responds to cold by constricting superficial blood vessels, which decreases thermal conduction in the skin and subsequently increases arterial blood pressure. Other responses are shivering and increased heart rate, which raise the metabolic rate and in turn increase body temperature, the researchers explained.

“In the majority of healthy people these mechanisms are well tolerated. But in people with atherosclerotic plaques in their coronary arteries they may trigger a heart attack,” Mohammad noted. Respiratory tract infections and influenza are also known risk factors for heart attack that have a clear seasonal variation.
“In addition, seasonal-dependent behaviours such as reduced physical activity and dietary changes could also play a role in the increased occurrence of heart attack during colder weather,” Mohammad said.

The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona. For the study, the team investigated the association between heart attack incidence and weather conditions such as air temperature, sunshine duration, precipitation, and air pressure in more than 2,80,000 patients.


Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/why-heart-attacks-are-more-prevalent-in-winters-4817558/

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