From the category archives:

Swine Flu Virus

Emergence of Novel H1N1 Raises Pandemic Concerns

The co-circulation of a human adapted H1N1 with a swine H1N1 raises concerns sequences with extensive recombination will emerge in 2010, as happened in 1918. More aggressive surveillance of H1N1 in swine worldwide is warranted, as is increased sequencing of human H1N1, since PCR testing may not distinguish between the two swine H1N1 strains. via [...]

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Tracing Flu Infections in Mice

In the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 7, 2010, the team reported creating a recombinant influenza A strain carrying a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene. The reporter gene was placed in the NS segment of the influenza genome. The new NS1-GFP virus infected and replicated well [...]

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H1N1 virus has mutated

The H1N1 virus has undergone a slight genetic mutation and its effect on patients has also changed. But patients are still responding to anti-viral drug Tamiflu. “Unlike last year, swine flu patients don’t have high fever these days. Severe sore throat and backache are the most prominent symptoms now,” said Dr G.T. Ambe, Brihanmumbai Municipal [...]

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H1N1 flu undergoing genetic changes in swine

“The particular reassortment we found is not itself likely to be of major human health risk, (but) it is an indication of what may be occurring on a wider scale, undetected,” said Malik Peiris, an influenza expert and co-author of a paper published in the June 18 issue of Science. “Other reassortments may occur, some [...]

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H1N1 flu undergoing genetic changes in swine

“The particular reassortment we found is not itself likely to be of major human health risk, (but) it is an indication of what may be occurring on a wider scale, undetected,” said Malik Peiris, an influenza expert and co-author of a paper published in the June 18 issue of Science. “Other reassortments may occur, some [...]

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Swine Flu Immunity Among Older People Waning?

In Scotland, following the two waves of infection that have occurred so far, it appears that older people are no longer more likely to have significant levels of antibodies than young people. The seroprevalence among young people is, presumably, primarily due to exposure during the two waves of infection. While we currently do not have [...]

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Swine Flu Lacks Killer Molecule

While the two surface proteins are important, it’s really PB1-F2 that gave the Spanish flu its punch, Palese told scientists gathered June 14 for Genetics 2010: Model Organisms to Human Biology, a meeting of the Genetics Society of America. Now, he and his colleagues have discovered that the viral protein prevents the body from making [...]

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Swine Flu – what we’re learning one year on

Given these inherent limitations in the data, however, some consistent observations have been noted. The results of the baseline seroepidemiological surveys provided reasonably consistent evidence that cross-protective immunity from previously circulating H1N1 strains increases with age, with the highest levels occurring in individuals aged >60 years. This finding may explain the low observed rates of [...]

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Flu’s secret evolution strategy unveiled

Flu’s secret formula for effectively evolving within and between host species has been unveiled. Scientists have said that the key lies with the flu’s unique replication process, which has evolved to produce enough mutations for the virus to spread and adapt to its host environment, but not so many that unwanted genomic mutations lead to [...]

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Structural Basis of Pre-existing Immunity to the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Influenza Virus

These structures clearly illustrate the high degree of conservation in the Sa site between the 2009 H1N1 flu and the hemagglutinins of H1N1 viruses found during the first decades of the 20th century. Exposure to older viruses circulating from 1918 through the 1930's or 1940's likely elicited 2D1-like antibodies that can cross-react with the 2009 [...]

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