( Data Presented at Leading Influenza Con...)New Flu Vaccine From PepTcell Could Provide Immunity Against All,Strains of Influenza Virus,Health

HIGH WYCOMBE, England, June 18, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- Previously undisclosed pre-clinical data showing how a new flu vaccine has the potential to protect against all strains of influenza, including pandemic and annual, was presented today by PepTcell, at the 2007 Options for the Control of Influenza VI (Options) Conference, in Toronto, Canada.

The pre-clinical results, which will be published in the European Journal of Immunology, showed how mice vaccinated with PepTcell's novel flu vaccine, FLU-v, had a significantly increased survival rate when challenged with a lethal dose of influenza virus, compared with those that received a control vaccine.

Dr Wilson Caparros-Wanderley, PepTcell's Chief Scientific Officer said: "These are extremely encouraging results for PepTcell's FLU-v vaccine. They show that a vaccine, targeted at parts of the virus which do not change from year-to-year, can be effective against lethal influenza strains."

The data showed how PepTcell has used a novel proprietary prediction algorithm to locate conserved immunogenic regions in animal and human strains of flu virus. The analysis identified six highly conserved regions within several proteins that are capable of triggering an immune response.

These six regions were then chemically synthesised as small protein fragments called peptides. The resulting preparation, FLU-v, was used to immunise eight transgenic mice. At the same time a group of eight control mice were immunised with a set of non-related peptides.

Following immunisation with FLU-v the mice launched a specific T-cell immune response of the CD8+ subtype against the peptides. T-cells are part of the immune system, helping to fight off infection and disease by killing abnormal cells. The CD8+ T-cells isolated from the mice showed activity against human cells infected with three unrelated influenza str
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