Preventing flu without a vaccine.

• Position: Viruses - Brief article

A way to trigger a preventive response to a flu infection without any help from the usual players--the virus itself or interferon, a powerful infection fighter--has been discovered by researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus. The finding suggests that manipulating a natural process someday could be an alternative way not just to reduce the severity of the flu, but prevent infection altogether.

"The flu vaccine needs to change every year because the virus is constantly mutating. What we're doing is targeting a more fundamental process that is not specific to any particular strain of the virus," explains senior study author Jacob Yount, assistant professor of microbial infection and immunity.

"If we were to have an outbreak of some pandemic influenza virus similar to what we experienced in...