Antibodies from survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic, the worst in human memory, still protect against the highly deadly virus.
The findings by a team of influenza and immune system experts suggest new and better ways to fight viruses — especially new pandemic strains that emerge and spread before a vaccine can be formulated.
These survivors, now aged 91 to 101, all lived through the pandemic as children. Their immune systems still carry a memory of that virus and can produce proteins called antibodies that kill the 1918 flu strain with surprising efficiency, the researchers report in the journal Nature.
“It was very surprising that these subjects would still have cells floating in their blood so long afterward,” said Dr. James Crowe, who helped lead the study…
“The antibodies that we isolated are remarkable antibodies. They grab onto the virus very tightly and they virtually never fall off,” Crowe said in a telephone interview. That allows them to kill the 1918 virus with extreme potency, meaning it takes a very small amount of antibody.”
Good read – especially considering what this discovery can mean in building tools to use against potential mutations of the H5N1 avian flu.
The key is cinnamon. Load up while you have the chance. Get some oregano oil while you’re at it.
I’m glad they found this out before they died. Could have been bad. Just goes to show that nature’s defenses are pretty powerful. It just required the deaths of millions.
I read recently that it wasn’t the flu that killed all the people it was secondary bacterial infections.
“It was very surprising that these subjects would still have cells floating in their blood so long afterward,” said Dr. James Crowe,”
This guy never read up on CCR5-delta 32 then.
This is why I wonder what is wrong with scientists. Are they so obessed on only their OWN research? Or they just not paying enough attention to what goes on outside their lab?
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We must round up the survivors, and drain their blood, so that we will have a cure if the outbreak should happen again.
We need a good pandemic every now and then to help thin out the weeds.
Jeezus, is this news?1? I was taught in grade school that someone that survived a disease had the antibodies to destroy that particular disease for the rest of their life. Maybe they weren’t sure this was a fact, even though my schoolbook offered it up as one? Da? Nyet?
MY SCHOOL BOOKS=The flu virus (and the cold virus) has mutated every few years (or sooner) and that’s why we must have shots periodically to combat these new strains (plus over-the-counter remedies to supress the symptoms)
Hi!
My name is Jessika!