MIT Researchers Study Pandemic Potential Of H5N1 & H7N9 Virus
By MIT News Office
AsianScientist.com
June 17, 2013
Influenza viruses that emerge from birds or pigs can create pandemic flu if they gain the ability to spread from person to person. New research from MIT shows that two recently emerged bird flu strains, which do not spread easily now, could become much more infectious with just one or a few genetic mutations.
The studies, which focused on the H5N1 and H7N9 flu strains, should help public health officials monitor evolving flu viruses for potential human-to-human transmission. They could also guide the development of new vaccines, says Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering and senior author of two papers appearing in the June 6 online edition of the journal Cell.
Flu viruses are classified according to the type of hemagglutinin (HA) protein they contain; the strains that most commonly infect humans contain H1 or H3 proteins. However, other HA types can evolve to attack human respiratory cells, potentially posing a significant threat because human immune systems are often not prepared to fight them off.
Sasisekharan and his colleagues set out to characterize the H5N1 and H7N9 viruses’ ability to infect humans by analyzing the structure of their HA proteins. In previous studies, Sasisekharan has shown that whether a flu virus can infect humans depends on its HA protein, which binds to glycan or sugar receptors found on the surface of respiratory cells. These glycan receptors come in two shapes: one that resembles an umbrella, and another that resembles a cone. To infect humans, flu viruses must bind to the umbrella-shaped receptors.
So far, neither H5N1 nor H7N9 has been able to efficiently bind human glycan receptors.
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