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.

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 ...

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.

Researchers found that the stalk of the hemagglutinin protein can vary in response to pressure from the immune system.

A stalk domain connects the head to the viral membrane and is responsible for fusing viral and host cell membranes so that the pathogen can invade human cells.

A protein on the surface of influenza viruses, hemagglutinin, shepherds the virus into host cells. Hemagglutinin is comprised of a 'head' (variable) and a 'stalk' (varies less from strain to strain).

Researchers proposed that vaccines targeting the immunosubdominant yet conserved hemagglutinin (HA) stem could trigger broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) against influenza A viruses.

Vaccines against influenza typically coax the immune system to generate antibodies that recognize the head of hemagglutinin (HA), a protein that extends outward from the surface of the flu virus.