Writing in a fast-tracked report broadcast in the journal Nature, a world team of analysts controlled by School of Wisconsin-Madison virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka gives a detailed portrait of the pandemic virus and its pathogenic qualities. Against this with run-of-the-mill seasonal flu viruses, the H1N1virus exhibits a capability to infect cells deep in the lungs, where it could cause pneumonia and, in severe cases, death.
"There is a misunderstanding about this virus," announces Kawaoka, a professor of pathobiological sciences at the UW-Madison College of Veterinary Medication and a leading authority on influenza. "People think this pathogen might be like seasonal influenza. And it is possible he adds, that the virus might become even more pathogenic as the current pandemic runs its course and the virus develops to get new features. It is now influenza season in the world's southern hemisphere, and the virus is anticipated to return in force to the northwards hemisphere in the autumn and winter influenza season.
To evaluate the pathogenic nature of the H1N1 virus, Kawaoka and his co-workers infected different groups of mice, ferrets and non-human primates - all generally accepted models for studies of influenza - with the pandemic virus and a seasonal flu virus. They revealed that the H1N1 virus replicates much better in the respiration system than seasonal influenza and causes dreadful abrasions in the lungs like those due to other more fierce types of pandemic influenza. The new Nature report also considered the immune response of different groups to the new virus. The most interesting finding, according to Kawaoka, is that those people exposed to the 1918 virus, all of whom are now in old age, have antibodies that neutralise the H1N1 virus. Kawaoka asserts that while finding the H1N1 virus to be a much more serious pathogen than formerly reported is stressful, the new report also suggests that existing and experimental antiviral drugs can form a useful first defensive position against the virus and slow its spread.
There are presently 3 licensed antiviral compounds, according to Kawaoka, whose team tested the efficiency of 2 of those compounds and the 2 experimental antiviral drugs in mice.
Antiviral drugs are viewed as a first defensive zone, as the development and production of mass quantities of vaccines take months at best. As well as his appointment at UW-Madison, Kawaoka is also a lecturer at the University of Tokyo. The new report was sponsored by grants from the US Countrywide Institutes of Health, and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Technology and Science.
