New research shows how H5N1 virus causes disease

H5N1 influenza, also known as avian influenza, is considered a major global threat to human health, with high fatality rates. While little had been known about the specific effects of H5N1 on organs and cells targeted by the virus, researchers at Beijing University, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and SUNY Downstate report in the September 29, 2007 issue of the Lancet detailed studies of human H5N1 victims that shed light on the anatomic distribution of the virus and its pathogenesis.

Using a combination of molecular and protein labeling techniques, the authors found that H5N1 is present in the gastrointestinal tract and immune and central nervous systems, as well as the respiratory tract. In one patient, virus was transmitted across the placenta to the fetus.

The newly obtained data are important in the clinical, pathological, and epidemiological investigations of human H5N1 infection, and have widespread implications for public-health and healthcare providers. Although there has been considerable progress in studying the virus itself, and in developing surveillance networks, diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines, only limited information has been obtained concerning the mechanisms by which H5N1 causes disease.

H5N1 infections initially seemed to be restricted to the lungs, but later reports have suggested that influenza A H5N1 could disseminate beyond the lungs. Lung damage is severe and disproportionate to the number of cells that are infected, with macrophages and T-cells targeted for infection. These latest findings indicate that lung damage is not due to virus replication alone and support the hypothesis that indirect effects, such as soluble factors known as cytokine and chemokines, are important.

According to the paper’s senior author W. Ian Lipkin, MD, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and professor of Epidemiology, Neurology, and Pathology at Columbia, “This is the first major paper from the Beijing Infectious Disease Center, established in the aftermath of SARS by Beijing University, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (the CDC of China), and the Mailman School of Public Health. The work helps us to understand H5N1’s high fatality rate, as well as serving as model for global collaboration in the field of emerging infectious diseases.”

Media Contact

Randee Sacks Levine EurekAlert!

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors