H1N1 tagged posts

Currently available flu medications only target the virus after it has already established an infection, but what if a drug could prevent infection in the first place? Now, scientists at Scripps Research and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have designed drug-like molecules to do just that, by thwarting the first stage of influenza infection.

The drug-like inhibitors block the virus from entering the body’s respiratory cells — specifically, they target hemagglutinin, a protein on the surface of type A influenza viruses...

Recombinant protein construction and PNp generation and characterization

Researchers have developed a universal vaccine to combat influenza A viruses that produces long-lasting immunity in mice and protects them against the limitations of seasonal flu vaccines, according to a study led by Georgia State University. The CDC estimates influenza has resulted in between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually in the U.S. since 2010.

Seasonal flu vaccines must be updated each year to match the influenza viruses that are predicted to be most common during the upcoming flu season, but protection doesn’t always meet expectations or new viruses emerge and manufacturers incorrectly guess which viruses will end up spreading...

This is a 3-D print of influenza virus. The virus surface (yellow) is covered with proteins called hemagglutinin (blue) and neuraminidase (red) that enable the virus to enter and infect human cells. In this study, Worobey and his collaborators show that the type of flu virus we first are exposed to as children determines which types we are protected from for the rest of our lives. Credit: National Institutes of Health

Your birth year predicts – to a certain extent – how likely you are to get seriously ill or die in an outbreak of an animal-origin influenza virus, according to a study co-led by researchers from the University of Arizona in Tucson and the University of California, Los Angeles...