By News desk:
A single nasal spray vaccine could protect against all coughs, colds and flus, as well as bacterial lung infections, and may even ease allergies, say US researchers. The team at Stanford University have tested their “universal vaccine” in animals and still need to do human clinical trials. Their approach marks a “radical departure” from the way vaccines have been designed for more than 200 years, they say. Experts in the field said the study was “really exciting” despite being at an early stage and could be a “major step forward”. Current vaccines train the body to fight one single infection. A measles vaccine protects against only measles, and a chickenpox vaccine protects against only chickenpox. This is how immunisation has worked since Edward Jenner pioneered vaccines in the late 18th Century.
“The principle by which this vaccine works is a radical departure from the principle by which all vaccines have worked so far.” The way it steers the immune system towards fighting an infection also seemed to reduce the response to house dust mite allergens – which are a trigger of allergic asthma.
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