Flu antigens are used to make flu vaccines, which induce the production of antibodies to neutralize foreign substances in the body. The flu is the seventh leading cause of death in the US, and pandemics can kill tens of millions of people. Vaccines are designed by the World Health Organization and contain three different flu strains. The vaccines are made in chicken eggs using whole virus particles, and the antibodies that boost the immune system are produced against two pieces of the virus that are on its surface. Antigen detection studies are used to identify outbreaks and decide whether a person has been infected with the influenza virus.
A flu antigen is a fragment of a flu virus used to make a flu vaccine. There are two types of pieces on the surface of the virus that act as antigens, or agents, that induce the production of antibodies. Antibodies are produced by the immune system to neutralize foreign substances in the body.
In the United States, the flu, or influenza, is considered the seventh leading cause of death. It causes much misery, lost work and hospitalizations. Periodically, there are pandemics all over the world. These are epidemics of new types of flu, to which people lack resistance, spreading rapidly. Such epidemics can kill tens of millions of people. This happened three times in the twentieth century.
To try and prevent the flu, many people get a flu shot every year. These are actually inactivated material from virus particles which are introduced into the body by injection. The body’s immune system recognizes influenza antigens as foreign and makes antibodies against them. The immune system remembers that these antigens are foreign and will respond quickly to neutralize flu viruses trying to infect the person. The flu shot will only prevent infection if it was made for the specific strain that is attacking the person.
The population of influenza viruses is constantly evolving. Therefore, it is a prediction of which flu strains will spread in the next year. The vaccine is designed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and contains three different flu strains. One is influenza B, a less virulent type, and the other two are different strains of influenza A. It was influenza A strains that were responsible for the 2009 swine flu and 1918 Spanish flu pandemics.
The vaccines are made in chicken eggs using whole virus particles. The antibodies that boost the immune system are produced against two pieces of the virus that are on its surface. Each influenza antigen is a protein. One is called hemagglutinin and it binds the virus to the infected cell. The other is neuraminidase, which is involved in processing sugars on the surface of the cell. This protein is a target for drugs that treat the flu.
Vaccines made with antigens from these particular flu strains are effective against the viruses used to make the vaccine. However, they will not be effective against viruses that have mutated and changed the structure of their antigens. There can be two types of changes in antigens. Influenza antigen can mutate and change shape, or a new type of virus can form with mixed antigens from different types of viruses. The latter is a more serious situation, as it often results in completely new strains that people have no resistance to.
Antigen detection studies are used to identify outbreaks and decide whether a person has been infected with the influenza virus and whether antiviral drugs should be used. Older tests used antibodies to influenza antigen types to determine if the virus was present. These, while accurate, could be time consuming. More recently, rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) have been developed that could give results within half an hour.
With rapidly mutating diseases that spread easily, like the flu, it’s always a race to try and keep up with the new strain of virus. The influenza virus lives in alternate hosts such as birds, pigs and even seals. It can suddenly mutate to spread into a new species. Even the standard seasonal flu kills large numbers of people each year, and a pandemic of a highly virulent strain could pose a major threat to human health.
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