Influenza in Biological News

Rapid approach to identify influenza A virus mutations and drug resistance developed

Genome Institute of Singapore scientists, led by Christopher Wong, Ph.D., have developed a novel approach to uncover the complete sequence of any influenza A virus, including H1NI, with just a quick nasal swab or nasal pharyngeal wash from patients. The new method, which enables scientists to ...

The challenges of avian influenza virus: Mechanism, epidemiology and control

The latest special issue of S cience in China Series C: Life Sciences focuses on the recent progress in the H5N1-related research field. Early 2009, eight human infection cases of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, with 5 death cases, were reported in China. This again made t...

SRI International to screen drugs that fight 2009 H1N1 influenza A

MENLO PARK, Calif. May 13, 2009 SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization, announced today that that it will screen a library of well-characterized drugs against the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus, previously known as "swine flu." The work will be performed ...

K-State researcher finds 1918 flu resulted in current lineage of H1N1 swine influenza viruses

In 1918 a human influenza virus known as the Spanish flu spread through the central United States while a swine respiratory disease occurred concurrently. A Kansas State University researcher has found that the virus causing the pandemic was able to infect and replicate in pigs, but did not kill t...

Genetic evidence for avian influenza movement from Asia to North America via wild birds

Wild migratory birds may be more important carriers of avian influenza viruses from continent to continent than previously thought, according to new scientific research that has important implications for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus surveillance in North America. As part of a multi-...

Mobilizing white blood cells to the lung: New discovery could lead to an improved influenza vaccine

July, 10, 2008; Saranac Lake, N.Y. -- Findings just published in the scientific journal Immunity by researchers at the Trudeau Institute shed new light on how a previously-unknown messaging mechanism within the human immune system prompts specific influenza-fighting cells to the lung airways dur...

Getting wise to the influenza virus' tricks

Influenza is currently a grave concern for governments and health organisations around the world. The worry is the potential for highly virulent bird flu strains, such as H5N1, to develop the ability to infect humans easily. New drugs and vaccines to halt the spread of the virus are badly needed. ...

Tamiflu effective for treatment and prevention of influenza in children 1 year and older

Tamiflu (oseltamivir) significantly reduces illness severity and duration in children one year and older, particularly if given within 24 hours of symptom onset, according to new data presented at the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Disease (WISPID) meeting in Bangkok 15-18 November. The an...

New field-deployable biosensor detects avian influenza virus in minutes instead of days

Quick identification of avian influenza infection in poultry is critical to controlling outbreaks, but current detection methods can require several days to produce results. A new biosensor developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) can detect avian influenza in just minutes. In ...

St. Jude influenza survey uncovers key differences between bird flu and human flu

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found key features that distinguish influenza viruses found in birds from those that infect humans. The St. Jude team used a mathematical technique to identify specific amino acid building blocks that are statistically more likely to app...

Experts predict Tamiflu could halve the pandemic influenza death toll versus no intervention

Treatment with the oral antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and prophylaxis for people exposed to infected patients could be one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing illness and death during an influenza pandemic. According to modelling research presented by Beate Sander, University of T...

Avian influenza survivors' antibodies effective at neutralising H5N1 strain

Adults who have recovered from the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza may hold the key to future treatments for the virus, according to an international team of researchers. In a study published today in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, the researchers have shown how specific ...

New host species for avian influenza identified

In a new study published online in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, Dr. Vincent J. Munster, of Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, and colleagues identify new host species for avian influenza A virus (H5N1) and provide important information on the distinctions between the ecology and epidemio...

NIAID expands capability for influenza research and surveillance

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced it is awarding $23 million per year for seven years to establish six Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. Collectively, the centers will expa...

Study suggests some drug resistance to influenza B medications

Use of certain common antiviral drugs during a recent influenza B epidemic in Japan showed the development of viruses with partial resistance to the drugs, according to a study in the April 4 issue of JAMA. Two antiviral drugs, zanamivir and oseltamivir, which are a type of drugs known as neurami...

Changes in amino acids in the 1918 influenza virus cut transmission

Modest changes in the 1918 flu virus's hemagglutinin receptor binding site—a molecular structure critical for the spread of infection—stopped viral transmission in ferrets, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and at the Centers for Disease Control and...

LIAI completes world's most comprehensive analysis on influenza virus data

Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) announced today the results of a first of its kind study analyzing all published data worldwide on influenza A virus antibody and T cell epitopes. Antibody and T cell epitopes are small sites on a virus that are the target...

NIAID DNA vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza enters human trial

The first human trial of a DNA vaccine designed to prevent H5N1 avian influenza infection began on December 21, 2006, when the vaccine was administered to the first volunteer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD. Scientists from the Vaccine Research Center (VRC...

Fighting influenza & co. with 40,000 blood samples

Four million people die every year from respiratory diseases such as viral influenza. For elderly people in particular, an infection can be dangerous. What is more, the flu vaccine is not as effective with this risk group as it is with younger people. The reason for this is that with age the fire p...

Antivirals effectively curb influenza virus

Two antiviral drugs, oseltamivir and zanamivir, are highly effective when given as a preventive measure to reduce the spread of the influenza virus, according to an analysis of household-based studies by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Michigan and University of...

Study uncovers a lethal secret of 1918 influenza virus

In a study of non-human primates infected with the influenza virus that killed 50 million people in 1918, an international team of scientists has found a critical clue to how the virus killed so quickly and efficiently. Writing this week (Jan. 18, 2007) in the journal Nature, a team led by Univer...

2,000 influenza virus genomes now completed and publicly accessible

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that it has achieved a major milestone. The entire genetic blueprints of more than 2,000 human and avian influenza vi...

A first glimpse of the influenza replication machine

In 1918, 50 million people died during a worldwide influenza pandemic caused by mutation of a bird-specific strain of the influenza virus. Recently H5N1, another highly infectious avian strain has caused outbreaks of bird flu around the world. There is great concern that this virus might also mutat...

Evolution of influenza A virus

An understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of the influenza virus determines scientists?ability to survey and control the virus. In a new study, published online in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, Dr. Eddie C. Holmes of the Department of Biology at Pennsylvania State University and colle...

Molecular anatomy of influenza virus detailed

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville have succeeded in imaging, in unprecedented detail, the virus that causes infl...

Mouse study reveals new clues about virulence of 1918 influenza virus

The first comprehensive analysis of an animal's immune response to the 1918 influenza virus provides new insights into the killer flu, report federally supported scientists in an article appearing online today in the journal Nature. Key among these insights, they found that the 1918 virus triggers ...

Avian influenza virus in mammals spreads beyond the site of infection to other organ systems

Researchers at Erasmus Medical Center have demonstrated systemic spread of avian influenza virus in cats infected by respiratory, digestive, and cat-to-cat contact. The paper by Rimmelzwaan et al., "Influenza A virus (H5N1) infection in cats causes systemic disease with potential novel routes of v...

Study outlines genetic differences between potential pandemic influenza strains

An analysis of H5N1 influenza samples in Southeast Asia shows not only how the two strains that have caused human disease are related but also that they belong to two different, distinct genetic subgroups. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report their findings today ...

New influenza vaccine takes weeks to mass produce

Using cell-based methods researchers have developed a commercially viable method for mass producing effective vaccines against potential pandemic influenza strains in weeks instead of the months required for traditional egg-based vaccines. They report their results today at the 2006 ASM Biodefense ...

First big influenza genome study reveals flu evolution

Which flu did you get? TIGR scientists survey five New York flu seasons On the eve of the 2005-06 flu season, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) have captured influenza evolution in action. In a study published in this week's journal Nature , the researchers report the firs...

New vaccine platform may fight infections with causes from influenza to bioterrorism

The development of effective vaccines for people with compromised immune systems may be feasible after all, according to a team of researchers, who demonstrated their approach could protect against pneumocystis pneumonia in mice lacking the same population of immune cells that HIV destroys in human...

Drug resistant avian influenza viruses more common in Southeast Asia than North America

Analysis of a key protein in different subtypes of avian flu viruses shows that resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine in H5N1 occurs worldwide, but is especially prevalent in China, according to St. Jude Resistance to the antiviral drug amantadine is spreading more rapidly among avian infl...

Less virulent strains of avian influenza can infect humans

In findings with implications for pandemic influenza, a new study reports for the first time that a less-virulent strain of avian influenza virus can spread from poultry to humans. The research appears in the October 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Crossing t...

Computers to be used to find blueprint for new influenza drug

Researchers at the University of Bath have won a £261,000 grant to use the latest software to produce a blueprint of a designer drug that could stop influenza and some other diseases from replicating in humans. The announcement of the grant comes at a time when fears are rising that an influenza...

Scientists decoding genomic sequences of H1N1 using isolates from outbreak in Argentina

...S), and Roche 454 Life Sciences to decode the complete genomic sequences of influenza pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus from patients with severe respiratory disease. T...f resistance to the oseltamivir vaccine, the antiviral drug that blocks the influenza virus from spreading between cells in the body, we are cautious about the f...

1 in 6 health workers won't report in flu pandemic -- study by Ben-Gurion U. researchers

...s of health responders to report to duty during an influenza pandemic is a major concern given the "inevitable"...he study concludes that in the context of pandemic influenza planning, the EPPM provides a useful framework to ...ssistance will make a difference in response to an influenza pandemic. First step is to better educate ...

Bioterrorism and disaster preparedness explored in special issue of Medical Decision Making

...many uncertainties inherent in disaster response, and good model reporting of the disaster response. "Evaluating the Capability and Cost of a Mass influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination Clinic via Computer Simulation" This research set out to determine the best way a clinic could vaccinate as many as 1...

Mount Sinai's Dr. Benjamin tenOever to be honored by White House

...ll match this amount, giving him $1 million for research over five years. Dr. tenOever's lab focuses on developing novel vaccine strategies to combat influenza virus and other emerging pathogens. "My receipt of this Presidential Award reflects the priority Mount Sinai School of Medicine places on discover...

Tips from the journals of the American Society for Microbiology

...nterferon Response May Offer Early Control of H5N1 influenza Virus Researchers from Georgia suggest that th...signaling protein, interferon type 1, reduced H5N1 influenza virus replication in mice and may offer some degre...ournal of Virology . Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses increasingly pose a serious public he...

7th annual [BC]2 Basel Computational Biology Conference 'Molecular Evolution' June 18-19, 2009

...e, UK, will present on "The antigenic evolution of influenza viruses". He will describe the study of influenza virus evolution, required for influenza vaccine strain selection. Derek is one of the lead...