Scientists Infect Monkeys with 1918 Flu Virus

And now, today's edition of "I Really Hope They Know What They're Doing."

Researchers at a facility in Canada have resurrected the virus behind the 1918 flu pandemic and infected monkeys with it.

The pandemic, which claimed millions of lives worldwide, was unusual because it killed lots of young people instead of the elderly.

Here are some details of the new research:

By infecting monkeys with the virus, the team was ableto show that the 1918 virus prompted a deadly respiratory infectionthat echoed historical accounts of how the disease claimed its victims.

Importantly, the new work shows that infection with the virusprompted an immune response that seems to derail the body's typicalreaction to viral infection and instead unleashes an attack by theimmune system on the lungs.

As immune cells attack the respiratory system, the lungs fill withfluid and victims, in essence, drown. The mechanisms that contribute tothe lethality of the virus were uncovered by University of Washingtonresearchers using functional genomics, a technique in which researchersanalyze the gene functions and interactions.

Learning more about the virulence mechanisms of the 1918 flu virusmay help researchers understand how to keep the virus from causing sucha severe immune response.
Here's how they brought the flu virus back to life:
[It was] reconstructed by researchers using genes obtained from thetissues of victims of the great pandemic in a reverse genetics processthat enables scientists to make fully functioning viruses.

And here's some scary stuff:

Clinical signs of disease were apparent within 24 hours of infectionand within eight days euthanization was necessary. The rapid course ofthe disease mirrors how quickly the disease ran its course in its humanvictims in 1918.

I know the germs are being held in top-level biosecurity. And I know there are plenty of other really nasty germs behind closed doors that I'm blissfully unaware of. And yeah, this may help us the next time a pandemic comes.

But still, this kind of research gives me the willies.

Here's a story I wrote about the possibility that the worldwide 1918 flu didn't begin in Kansas, as suspected. And another about how the pandemic may have started in birds.

Meanwhile... if you're visiting the Bodyhack blog from the Wired News home page, follow this link to today's bounty of other posts about everything from water intoxification to presidential assassination to frozen embryos. (Soon, a redesign will make it easier for you to see other blog posts when you drop in from Wired News, but that day hasn't come yet.)

Study uncovers a lethal secret of 1918 influenza virus [Press release]