Fending Off the Flu
A number of common supplements and drugs can boost the immune system’s ability to ward off the flu and reduce symptoms once you have it, said Jeffrey Gelfand, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital at the CIMIT (Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology) Innovation Congress this morning in Boston. Gelfand suggested that in the absence of adequate supplies of vaccine against the H1N1 flu strain, we’ll need to turn to less conventional measures. Clinical research shows that L-theanine, which is found in tea, and quercetin, a plant polyphenol, can reduce chances of getting an upper respiratory infection, he said. Both are available at stores that sell vitamin supplements.
Statins, the cholesterol-lowering blockbuster drug, can reduce symptoms of the flu, especially in younger people, the group hardest hit by H1N1. The drugs, many of which are available generically, reduce the “cytokine storm”–part of the immune reaction that occurs during sepsis and influenza infection. “I believe this could significantly reduce mortality,” said Gelfand.
Gelfand also said that changing our approach to vaccination could help extend limited vaccine supplies. One method currently under study is delivering vaccines to the skin, rather than to the muscle, as is done with current injections. Directly targeting the skin enhances the response from immune cells in the skin. His team is testing a laser-coupled injection system, in which a precise dose of laser light is used to briefly irritate the skin, attracting the target immune cells even more effectively. Initial studies show that this approach generates the same antibody response with only 20 percent of the amount of vaccine.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it
Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon.
How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language
For decades, coders wrote critical systems in C and C++. Now they turn to Rust.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.
Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death
Can anti-aging breakthroughs add 10 healthy years to the human life span? The CEO of OpenAI is paying to find out.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.