Nearly two years after scientists reconstituted the deadly 1918 influenza strain, results of infecting mice with this strain show that the unusually lethality of this strain is due to “increased and accelerated activation of host immune responses associated with severe pulmonary pathology” rather than direct destruction of the lungs.
In an advanced online publication in Nature, a group of researchers from the US showed that the mice injected with reconstituted virus which contained all 8 functional genes of the 1918 strain, exhibited a strong immune response that failed to protect the animals but caused lung damage and death. In contrast, mice infected with a reconstituted strain which had one or more of the original genes tweaked resulted in a more benign immune response and consequently fewer deaths.
The results of the study suggest that under natural conditions, re-emergence of the 1918 requires a recombination events that combines all required 8 genes in one virion, which many think may not be most likely scenario.
Yet avian flu can still kill you…(if the terrorists don’t get to you first, or you don’t die from contaminated Shawarma or spinach). The 148th death from bird flu was just confirmed today.
