Strides made in fight against bird flu
International team of researchers finds that human blood samples from Vietnam contain antibodies capable of protecting mice from infection
Blood samples from four Vietnamese bird flu victims contain antibodies effective in protecting mice from infection, an international team of researchers announced this week. The idea of using blood antibodies from the sick to protect the healthy is not, of course, a new idea, having been done during the 1918-1919 influenza outbreak, but epidemiologists worldwide have struggled to create the effect for bird flu. Known as passive immunotherapy, the new approach relies on two distinct steps: the extraction and culturing of antibody-producing white blood cells known as Memory B cells, and the purification of the B cells to isolate four distinct monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that secrete bird flu neutralizing antibodies. Tests showed that mice receiving either of the two protective mAbs had levels of virus in thier lungs that were 10 to 100 times lower than those in control mice, and little or no virus moved beyond the lungs. The mouse study is ”a very lovely, elegant proof of principle,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University.
