Word: influenza
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...common way to treat the many types of influenza,” said Wayne A. Marasco, an associate professor at Dana-Farber...
...antibodies, identified at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, target a mutation-resistant region on the surface protein Hemagglutenin, which provides a crucial link between the many strains of influenza virus...
...does, we might be better prepared than we ever were, thanks to a clever new strategy that scientists are testing for an improved way to treat influenza. Researchers at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have collaborated to test an antibody-based therapy for flu. Specifically, they tested antibodies that target core, conserved regions of the virus that do not mutate as readily as other parts. That's a little like attacking the virus's operating system instead of its software. Go after such primal programming...
Current flu vaccines are rejiggered every year in an attempt to keep up with rapidly adapting influenza strains. This immunological arms race is necessary because the viruses are very good at setting traps for the vaccines. The immune system is calibrated to crank out antibodies in response to the proteins it sees in the greatest quantities. Over the ages, the flu virus has thus evolved a shape like a bobble-head doll, and it covers the head portion with proteins it can easily change or do without. The vaccine targets these ever changing spots, and by the time the next...
...disabling the viruses and preventing them from infecting additional healthy cells - they can also position themselves in the binding site of the cells themselves, blocking the virus at the receiving end too. One more advantage of this viral weak spot: it's the same on the vast majority of influenza strains circulating each year, including the ones responsible for the bird flu, H5N1. That makes this antibody approach potentially useful not only against seasonal flu but against pandemic strains as well. (See pictures of the bird...