Despite the head and stalk-specific antibodies being lower in low responders, they had comparable antibody avidity, ADCC functionality and neutralising capacity to those of controls who had high ...

Flu shots -- and immune systems -- tend to target the bulb-like “head” of hemagglutinin rather than the stalk. But the details of that head region also change constantly, creating an arms race between ...

Scientists had known that the hemagglutinin stem, or stalk, isn’t as apt to change as the lollipop top, which theoretically makes the stem a good target for a universal vaccine.

In contrast, the hemagglutinin stalk is far more resistant to mutations, providing a target for antibodies that block its activity—the reason it may be a candidate for a universal flu vaccine.

Conversely, the stalk doesn’t undergo as much change and is quite similar from strain to strain. Antibodies that recognize and neutralize the hemagglutinin stalk should, in theory, work against ...

Flu shots -- and immune systems -- tend to target the bulb-like “head” of hemagglutinin rather than the stalk. But the details of that head region also change constantly, creating an arms race ...

And we found that the antibodies react to both the globular head the very top of HA as well as the hemagglutinin stalk, which is a little bit lower down,” Hensley said.

First, Heaton’s team aimed to create a group of mutated hemagglutinin proteins with a wide variety of mutations only in the head region, but with conserved stalks.

They are moving toward a universal flu vaccine "by reducing the immunodominance of the hemagglutinin head and, thereby, increasing the immunogenicity of the hemagglutinin stalk and of the ...