1918 killer flu secrets revealed

[Lionel]

Scientists have worked out how the virus which caused the world's worst flu epidemic infected man. They believe the virus, which claimed the lives of 50m people around the world, jumped from birds to humans. The breakthrough, published in Science, should help doctors identify which future bird viruses pose a threat to man at an earlier stage. But the National Institute for Medical Research team warns viruses cannot be stopped from crossing between species. They also say their work is unlikely to aid the current fight against avian flu in the Far East as knowing the structure of a virus is not enough to block its progress.The key first stage of infection is for the flu virus to attach itself to the cells in which it will breed. It does this by using spike-like molecules called Hemagglutinins (HA) that bind to particular receptors on the surface of cells in the body. Human and bird virus HAs interact with different cell receptors and therefore bird viruses do not usually infect humans.

However, the NIMR team has studied the HA of the 1918 virus in close detail, and found that only minor changes in its structure were required for it to start to bind with human cells as well as bird cells. This gave it the ability to pass from birds to humans, and then between humans - with devastating results.

View: Full Article | Source: BBC News