>For their influenza vaccine, the researchers created an mRNA cocktail encoding the four influenza proteins neuraminidase, nucleoprotein, matrix protein 2, and the stalk portion of hemagglutinin
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>The vaccine was then injected into a group of twenty or so naive mice who had never experienced influenza before. They either got a quadrivalent jab (meaning all four mRNA segments for each protein was present) or monovalent (the conventional flu vaccine or vaccines containing an individual mRNA for any one of the proteins). Some animals received one shot, while others lucked out with one shot plus a booster four weeks later. The mice were then challenged with an assortment of different influenza strains, both that infect humans and other animals like dogs.
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>“When we mix all of them together, we get the broadest immune response,” he says. “You get the engagement of T cells against the nucleoprotein, you get antibodies, and we get a pretty strong neuraminidase response. That’s kind of the beauty here that you’re flexible in what types of [viral proteins] you use… and you have a lot of possibilities to try [out].”
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>The researchers also expect it wouldn’t need to undergo annual updates as our current ones do. Instead, they might last for a few years.