In a breakthrough likely to revolutionize the development of new flu treatments, scientists have discovered a flu "super antibody" dubbed FI6 that can combat all sorts of influenza A viruses that spread infections in humans and animals.

Researchers from Switzerland and Britain employed a new method with intent of beating "needle-in-a-haystack-type-odds" and successfully identified an antibody from a human patient which neutralizes both primary groups of influenza A viruses.

Though it’s still early days and the findings are yet to deliver a universal abridgment, the discovery is an imperative one and in time may well cement the foundation for the development of a global flu vaccine.

Scientists explained that the antibodies of a person infected by influenza virus attacks the hemagglutinin protein of the virus.

Since this protein expands so hastily, there are 16 different subtypes of influenza A, which has been divided into two main groups. Humans frequently produce antibodies to a particular subtype, and new vaccines are developed each year to contest these strains.

However, scientists need to recognize the molecular signatures that instigate the development of widely neutralizing antibodies.

During the study, researchers developed a technique using X-ray crystallography to analyze prodigious amount of human plasma cells, to amplify their odds of tracking an antibody even if it was exceedingly rare.

When they identified FI6, they injected it into ferrets and mice to discover that it actually shielded the animals from infection by either a Group 1 or Group 2 of influenza A virus.

The observations were published on Thursday in the journal ‘Science’.