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Study uncovers lethal secret of 1918 influenza virus |
| TheAllINeed.com |
(NC&T/WU) The group was led by University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, and includes Michael Katze, professor of microbiology at the University of Washington, and his colleagues here.
Writing in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature, the team reports how the virus -- modern history's most savage influenza strain -- unleashes an immune response that destroys the lungs in a matter of days leading to death.
The finding is important because it provides insight into how the virus that swept the world in the closing days of World War I was so efficiently deadly, claiming as many of its victims people in the prime of life. The work suggests that it may be possible in future outbreaks of highly pathogenic flu to stem the tide of death through early intervention, and it proves that the virus was different from all of the other flu viruses currently studied.
The new study, conducted at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, utilized the 1918 flu virus, which has been reconstructed by researchers using genes obtained from the tissues of victims of the great pandemic in a reverse genetics process that enables scientists to make fully functioning viruses. The research gives clues into the longstanding mystery of why the 1918 flu was so deadly, and it will help scientists better understand all influenza viruses and their ability to cause pandemics.
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By infecting monkeys with the virus, the team was able to show that the 1918 virus prompted a deadly respiratory infection that echoed historical accounts of how the disease claimed its victims.
Importantly, the new work shows that infection with the virus prompted an immune response that seems to derail the body's typical reaction to viral infection and instead unleashes an attack by the immune system on the lungs. As immune cells attack the respiratory system, the lungs fill with fluid and victims, in essence, drown.
The mechanisms that contribute to the lethality of the virus were uncovered by University of Washington researchers using functional genomics, a technique in which they analyze the gene functions and interactions. Learning more about the virulence mechanisms of the 1918 flu virus may help researchers understand how to keep the virus from causing such a severe immune response.
"This study in macaques, combined with our earlier research showing the host response in mice infected with the 1918 flu, suggests that the host immune response is out of control in animals infected with the virus," said Katze, the University of Washington scientist who led the functional genomics portion of the new study and led the previous mouse-based study. "Our analysis revealed potential mechanisms of virulence, which we hope will help us develop novel antiviral strategies to both outwit the virus and moderate the host immune response."
The same excessive immune reaction is characteristic of the deadly complications of H5N1 avian influenza, the strain of bird flu present in Asia and which has claimed nearly 150 human lives but has not yet shown a capacity to spread easily among people.
In the new study, conducted in a high-level biosafety laboratory (BSL 4) at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, seven primates were infected with the reconstructed 1918 virus. Clinical signs of disease were apparent within 24 hours of infection and within eight days euthanization was necessary. The rapid course of the disease mirrors how quickly the disease ran its course in its human victims in 1918.
Upon infection, the virus grew rapidly in the infected animals, suggesting the agent somehow sets the stage for virulent infection by doing something to the host. Knowing that the virus does something early in infection to trigger such a devastating immune response may provide biomedical researchers with clues about how to intervene and stop or mitigate the virus' potentially lethal effects.
The study also included researchers from Japan's Tottori University and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease.
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