Antibodies protect against wide range of influenza B virus strains

Researchers have identified two antibodies that protect mice against lethal infections of influenza B virus, report scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Together with an antibody that targets the other major kind of influenza viruses that infect people—influenza A—these antibodies potentially could form the basis of a broad-spectrum flu drug that could treat almost all flu cases.