London: Researchers have found how the bird flu virus, which kills 60 per cent of the people it infects, is blocked by human cells, an advance that may lead to better approaches for stopping the potentially pandemic disease. The researchers from the The Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) in Germany have found a way to assess whether people who suddenly become infected with a bird flu virus represent the first signs of a large scale disease outbreak.
The study noted that avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) — such as H5N1, H7N9, and H5N6 — are unable to transform infected human cells into effective virus factories since they do not produce enough of the matrix protein M1 following infection. The researchers said the infectious agent requires this protein to export the many copies of its genetic material from the cell nucleus — an essential process for building new viruses.
One of the proteins is hemagglutinin (H), which enables the virus to infect human and animal cells where it can multiply, and the other is neuraminidase (N), which helps the virus’ offspring to extract themselves from the infected cell. Citing waterfowls as an example, the researchers said, there are 16 known hemagglutinin subtypes and nine known neuraminidase subtypes, resulting in at least 144 possible H and N combinations for infecting this bird.
— PTI
