Posted on 03/30/2005 12:12:24 PM PST by ex-Texan
Scientists identify key factor in switch from birds to humans
British scientists have solved a secret of an avian flu virus which killed up to 40 million people worldwide 86 years ago. They now know more about how a disease of birds switched to humans to trigger the most lethal outbreak in history.
A team from the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, north London, used pathological samples taken from victims of the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 to recreate the structure of a haemagglutinin protein vital in the leap between species.
"This tells us more about the transmission from birds to humans," said Sir John Skehel, leader of the team.
"However, it will not have an immediate impact on the situation currently unfolding in the far east with the chicken flu known as H5 since, from our previous work, we know that the 1918 and H5 haemagglutinins are quite different."
The research is published in the online edition of the US journal Science today. It is backed up by a study from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
Viruses smuggle themselves into a host cell to replicate and then spread infection. Haemagglutinin is a spike-like molecule on the surface of the virus which sticks to receptors on the cells of birds or humans.
The teams worked with DNA preserved in the Alaskan permafrost and in preserved tissue taken from young American soldiers who died in 1918.
The British researchers used x-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structure of the haemagglutinin.
The American team started from a different point and studied the precursor protein that becomes haemagglutinin.
Between them, they have thrown light on one of history's great puzzles. Flu kills thousands of Britons every year but those most at risk are the elderly, the very young or those suffering from some other illness.
But the 1918 strain was different: it hit the young, healthy and well nourished of neutral countries as fiercely as it ravaged the refugee camps in wartorn Europe.
It first appeared in March 1918 in a military camp in Kansas, in the US, and 522 soldiers were ill within two days. In the end it killed about 700,000 people in the US and about 230,000 in Britain. The French called it la grippe, the Russians, "the Spanish lady". Mortality rates were huge: in some communities up to 70% died. The virus disappeared within 18 months as mysteriously as it came, leaving 20-40 million dead.
Flu is a disease of birds as well as humans and other mammals. The virus was first found at Mill Hill in 1933, in a ferret. The infection mutates swiftly, with new strains appearing almost every year.
The latest research is not likely to lead to better drugs or vaccines, but it will help researchers and could pay off in more effective surveillance of successive variations in the virus.
The British researchers also looked at haemagglutinin structures from two viruses isolated just after the 1918 pandemic, one from swine, one from humans.There have been several lethal pandemics since 1918, including the Asian flu outbreak of 1957 and Hong Kong flu in 1968.
Sir John said: "Bird viruses recognise different receptors than human viruses. So when they transfer into the human population they have got to change their binding capacity. With the Asian flu and Hong Kong flu in 1957 and 1968, we think we know how they do that.
"But in the case of the 1918-1957 viruses, where the Asian and Hong Kong flu changed, these ones stayed the same: they looked just like the avian progenitor. So the mystery is: what happened to allow them to infect humans?"
Should make it easier for the Twelve Monkeys to complete their mission.
So it killed millions in 1918, but was first found in 1933? I guess people were too busy dying in 1918 to look in the mirror.
Great Influenza ping
The solution is a bit more obvious than that. It was a particular nasty strain (which happens every dozen years or so) and our medical knowledge and techniques weren't that good. If the 1918 strain popped up again next flu season it would be a very bad flu season, because it was a very nasty strain, but it wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as it was in 1918, our medicine can handle that beast now.
Well, presumeably the flu was found in 1918 when people were dropping like flies from it.
I heard this about 50 yeas ago from my dad. He had heard it from his professors some time before that. Of course, this article points out a closer connection.
Also most of the afflicted died from secondary infections because back then they didn't have antibiotics.
"But in the case of the 1918-1957 viruses, where the Asian and Hong Kong flu changed, these ones stayed the same: they looked just like the avian progenitor. So the mystery is: what happened to allow them to infect humans?"
One part of the mystery solved, another mystery created:"what happened to allow them to infect humans?"
Also, why did the 1918 pandemic after killing 20-40m people after 18 months suddenly disappear globally?
My grandfather died of the 1918 flu in Stafford Kansas. My father was only a few months old. There were not enough coffins to bury people in so they used whatever was at hand, They had to break his legs to get him into a girl sized coffin. Terrible times.
Very interesting! Thanks very much.
There's some great science being done out there.
Interesting. My father survived the "Spanish Flu" in 1918 and has never caught any strain of flu since then.
Yep, didn't have antibiotics, were really still learning germ theory, didn't have the transportation infrastructure to move medical supplies (especially perishable supplies) around quickly and effectively, and just weren't ready for anything major. A modern day third world country probably has better medical practices than any place in the world in 1918.
WOW!..that's interesting, a pandemic plague.
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