Global attention is heavily focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, as countries strive to vaccinate their citizens against the novel coronavirus. However, seasonal influenza, which claims a significant number of lives each year, does not receive adequate attention. According to the "New York Times," between 3 million and 5 million people worldwide die annually from seasonal influenza.
Experts note that a new strain of influenza jumps from animals to humans every few decades. What is surprising is that the death toll from seasonal influenza has remained high globally despite the existence of vaccines for the disease for eight decades. Scientists estimate that the currently available vaccines for seasonal influenza are not very effective. Individuals need to receive a flu vaccine every season, but the effectiveness only reaches between 40 and 60 percent, and in some years, it may drop below 10 percent.
The "New York Times" reported that a new generation of seasonal flu vaccines may emerge in the coming years, thanks to advancements made in RNA technology. In RNA-based vaccines, acids are used to stimulate cells to produce a part of the virus, prompting the body to generate specific antibodies and immune cells.
RNA technology has helped immunize hundreds of millions of people against the coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 and evolved into a fierce global pandemic. Scientists believe that vaccines developed using RNA technology may achieve greater immunity in the body against seasonal influenza.
So far, the biotech company "Moderna," alongside the French company "Sanofi," announced last summer that they had begun trials to produce seasonal flu vaccines using RNA technology. Moderna developed one of the vaccines using RNA technology to combat the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, the companies "Pfizer" and "BioNTech," which developed another vaccine with RNA technology, announced last month that they were conducting trials to develop a vaccine against seasonal influenza in the same manner.
Following trials in animals, it was found that the RNA-based flu vaccines led to greater immunity against the viruses, while antibodies were stimulated and immune cells trained to attack infected cells.
