Kawaoka: Hybrid swine-bird flu virus possible, extremely lethal

[indigo girl]

http://www.scottmcpherson.net/journal/2010/2/22/kawaoka-hybrid-swine-bird-flu-virus-possible-extremely-letha.html

This commentary is written by Scott McPherson, the Chief Information Officer for the Florida House of Representatives. He is very knowledgeable about influenza, and I count him as a friend and fellow influenza blogger.

I've been putting off posting this for a few days because of the time involved in explaining why this study is so important. First of all, look at who the authors are! The stars of the virology world are represented in this paper. It is kind of startling, at least to me, to see three of these impressive researchers involved together on the same project...

Kawaoka is kind of the new darling of the virology world, and he must have made an impression on Bill and Melinda Gates because their foundation gave him a hugh grant recently. He seems to be affiliated with both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Tokyo. http://www.biomedexperts.com/Profile.bme/684477/Yoshihiro_Kawaoka

Chairul A. Nidom of Indonesia is the very same guy who did the research showing all those domestic cats in Indonesia infected with H5N1, bird flu. Until a few years ago, no one had ever heard of cats being infected with influenza, now we are even hearing of them infected with swine flu. http://www.vetscite.org/publish/items/003469/index.html

To top it off, this study is edited by none other than Dr. Robert G. Webster, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN. Webster is probably the most well known and best respected influenza researcher in the world. Famous in his own right, he has mentored other researchers such Guan Yi and Malik Peiris of University of Hong Kong

who made the discovery of the organism that caused SARS as well as discovering which animal was harboring it.

http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=839e10e88ce70110VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD

It is really exciting to know that this paper comes to us from these researchers. I wish I was more familiar with the other names on the project, but I am not.

Genetic interactions between avian H5N1 influenza and human seasonal influenza viruses have the potential to create hybrid strains combining the virulence of bird flu with the pandemic ability of H1N1, according to a new study.

In laboratory experiments in mice, a single gene segment from a human seasonal flu virus, H3N2, was able to convert the avian H5N1 virus into a highly pathogenic form. The findings are reported the week of Feb. 22 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Some hybrids between H5N1 virus and seasonal influenza viruses were more pathogenic than the original H5N1 viruses. That is worrisome," says Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and senior author of the new study.

There have been more Egyptians hit by H5N1 bird flu thus far in 2010 than there are Americans who have tested positive for H1N1 or H3N2 seasonal influenza.

Bird flu continues to spread again, in defiance of tradition and in defiance of all governments' attempts to eradicate it. As the H1N1v pandemic continues to strike and spread in Asia, the potential for dual infection with H5 and H1 simultaneously increases. How many cross-infections does it take to achieve some sort of viral critical mass?

Only one.

This second commentary on the same research is from my dear friend, Mike Coston who blogs over at Avian Flu Diary.

http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2010/02/pnas-h3n2-and-h5n1-reassortment.html

The concern for a good many years has been that the highly pathogenic (and deadly) H5N1 bird flu virus would someday find a way to adapt more fully to humans, and spark a devastating pandemic.

Thus far, H5N1’s saving grace is that it transmits poorly among humans. A mutation, or a reassortment of the virus, could alter its transmissibility.

And that could change everything overnight.

The `surprise’ in this research was the production of multiple hybrid strains that were even more virulent (in mice) than H5N1 alone.