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University of Nebraska Medical Center

Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases

Bird flu in mammals

(Nature) An engineered influenza virus based on a haemagglutinin protein from H5N1 avian influenza, with just four mutations, can be transmitted between ferrets, emphasizing the potential for a human pandemic to emerge from birds.  Influenza pandemics in humans arise from animal influenza viruses, yet the molecular changes required for an animal virus to be transmitted […]

May 2, 2012

Experimental adaptation of an influenza H5 HA confers respiratory droplet transmission to a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus in ferrets

(Nature) Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses occasionally infect humans, but currently do not transmit efficiently among humans. The viral haemagglutinin (HA) protein is a known host-range determinant as it mediates virus binding to host-specific cellular receptors1,2,3. Here we assess the molecular changes in HA that would allow a virus possessing subtype H5 HA […]

May 2, 2012

In vitro evolution of H5N1 avian influenza virus toward human-type receptor specificity

(Virology) Acquisition of α2-6 sialoside receptor specificity by α2-3 specific highly-pathogenic avian influenza viruses (H5N1) is thought to be a prerequisite for efficient transmission in humans. By in vitro selection for binding α2-6 sialosides, we identified four variant viruses with amino acid substitutions in the hemagglutinin (S227N, D187G, E190G, and Q196R) that revealed modestly increased α2-6 and […]

Jan 5, 2012