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Human antibodies to combat bird flu

David Pallister

Trials halt strain of H5N1 in mice

London: An international team of scientists has published evidence of a potential first step towards a treatment of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu which has claimed scores of lives around the world.

Their research successfully used antibodies from survivors of the Vietnamese strain of the disease to prevent it developing in mice, and to neutralise the virus in those already infected.

The H5N1 strain has killed millions of birds across the globe and by the middle of this month, according to the World Health Organisation, there had been 306 known cases in humans, 185 of them fatal.

The results from the study, by scientists in Vietnam, Switzerland and the U.S., were published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. Because of the international concerns about the disease, the work was fast-tracked with funding from Britain and the U.S.

The researchers found the antibodies provided significant immunity to mice that were subsequently infected with the Vietnamese strain of H5N1.

It also cut the amount of virus found in the lungs and almost completely prevented it from reaching the brain or spleen.

Cameron Simmons, a Wellcome Trust researcher at the Oxford University clinical research unit in Ho Chi Minh City, said: ``We have shown that this technique can work to prevent and neutralise infection by the H5N1 bird flu virus in mice. We are optimistic that these antibodies could also provide a clinical benefit to humans with H5N1 infections.''

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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