Scientists have presented a new approach to developing an influenza vaccine that could provide broader protection against multiple virus strains, instead of requiring annual updates based on expected circulating variants.

The study describing this breakthrough was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Traditional flu vaccines work on a “best guess” principle: their composition is updated each year because influenza viruses mutate rapidly. As a result, the effectiveness of seasonal vaccination can vary.

The new strategy aims to change the very principle of how the immune response is directed. Researchers propose focusing not on the entire surface protein of the virus, but on specific regions of it called epitopes.

These fragments are recognized by the immune system and trigger a protective response.

In the experimental vaccine model, different versions of epitopes were used to “redirect” the immune response. Instead of training the immune system to focus only on the most variable parts of the virus, it is taught to recognize more stable regions that are less prone to mutation.

According to the results, this approach enabled the immune system to generate a broader response and recognize more variants of the influenza virus. This could potentially lead to more universal protection and reduce reliance on annual strain selection.

The authors also note that some of the selected epitopes belong to more conserved regions of the virus. In theory, this could improve the stability and durability of protection and bring the development of a “universal” flu vaccine closer to reality.

However, the research is still at the modeling stage, and further clinical trials in humans will be required to confirm its effectiveness in real-world conditions.