Pig flu breakthrough could improve human treatments

Researchers have generated the first antibodies against swine influenza that protect against infection and recognise the same parts of the flu virus as human antibodies.

The work by The Pirbright Institute indicates the antibodies could be used to develop and assess human antibody therapies, and related delivery methods. The pig antibodies also have potential to improve how flu evolution is monitored and help inform decisions about annual flu vaccine selection.

Collaboration

Scientists at Pirbright worked in collaboration with the University of Oxford, The Francis Crick Institute and The Pirbright Livestock Antibody Hub to generate the pig antibodies in the laboratory. The monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are the first to be generated to target the flu virus.

The teams found the mAbs recognise the same two main sites of flu virus haemagglutinin protein targeted by human antibodies, and were as effective at neutralising the swine flu strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

Findings

The study, published in PLOS Pathogens, demonstrates pig mAbs are more closely matched to human antibodies and could, therefore, improve the reliability of human vaccine selection.

Elma Tchilian, mucosal immunology group leader at Pirbright, said: “These data demonstrate that pigs and humans, which are both natural hosts for influenza viruses, generate very similar immune responses.

“This makes the pig an excellent translational model for testing novel vaccines and monoclonal antibody delivery methods.”