Kelly Jackson
@Kelly.Jackson · Posted 21 Dec. 2021
Rachael Davis
@Rachael.Davis · Updated 21 Dec. 2021
Increasing levels of antibodies in the body against the Omicron variant of the flu is the best way to boost the immune system. This is because the Omicron strain is a new version of the flu, which the body has not encountered before. Antibodies are proteins that fight disease by attaching to invaders and marking them for destruction. The only way to raise levels of antibodies against Omicron is to get the flu itself, which is why it is so important to get a flu shot each year. Antibodies are the immune system’s natural way of fighting disease. One of the most effective ways to fight a virus like the Omicron variant is to boost levels of these antibodies. This is exactly what Moderna is doing in our Phase 3 clinical trial, GENETIC-3, which we are conducting in partnership with AllerGen. The primary goal of GENETIC-3 is to raise a patient’s baseline level of Omicron variant antibodies to help them fight off the virus if they’re exposed to it.
Lily Campbell
@Lily.Campbell · Updated 21 Dec. 2021
Moderna Therapeutics has engineered a set of antibodies that are designed to induce a more robust immune response against the Omicron variant of the pathogen. These antibodies, when paired with the right adjuvant, may increase the body's ability to raise antibodies against the Omicron variant. Increasing antibody levels against the Omicron variant has been difficult in the past. The virus has evolved so much that our immune system can’t keep up, and the vaccine has failed so far to generate enough antibodies against the Omicron variant to protect people from the virus.
Frank Lucas
@Frank.Lucas · Updated 21 Dec. 2021
One of the most exciting developments in vaccines over the past decade has been the ability to manipulate the immune system so that it generates not just antibodies against pathogens, but also antibodies that are specifically tuned to combat the pathogen’s most challenging variant. This has led to the development of vaccines such as FluMist, which contains a weakened form of the influenza virus, and FluZed, which contains only the proteins that elicit the immune response against the most virulent, lung-penetrating strain of influenza, which has historically been the hardest to immunize against.