Are We Close to a Universal Vaccine for Respiratory Illnesses?

When the researchers gave the treatment to mice over the course of four weeks and then exposed them to pathogens, what they saw was promising. “One month after immunization, three months after immunization, and in some cases, up to six months after immunization, the mice were protected against SARS-CoV-2, the original SARS pathogen, and another coronavirus,” as well as other pathogens, says Pulendran. Exploring further, they discovered that the vaccine had induced the formation of tiny immune structures in the lungs, fortresses from which the mouse’s body could continually fight infection.

Those structures seem to be key, says Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunology at Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the study but calls it “very interesting.” 

“In humans, there are different structures in the nose and the throat and the deeper lung,” she says. “Whether or not this type of vaccination can induce similar structures in humans is something that needs to be tested.”