World
Bird flu war could soon be won
A worker injects a chicken with bird flu vaccine at a farm in Changzhi, Shanxi province, January 20, 2009. Photo/REUTERS
Posted Tuesday, February 24 2009 at 18:39
WASHINGTON, Tuesday
Researchers have discovered human antibodies that neutralise not only H5N1 bird flu, but other strains of influenza as well. They now hope to develop them into life-saving treatments.
The antibodies — immune system proteins that attach to invaders such as viruses —also might be used to protect frontline workers and others at high risk in case a pandemic of flu broke out, the researchers said.
Several types
In tests on mice, the viruses neutralised several types of influenza A viruses, including the H5N1 avian influenza virus, the researchers reported in Sunday’s issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
“We were surprised and actually delighted to find that these antibodies neutralised a majority of other influenza viruses, including the regular seasonal (H1N1 strain of) flu,” Robert Liddington of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Influenza is especially difficult to fight because it cloaks itself in lollipop-shaped proteins called hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which mutate regularly. (Reuters)
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