Comments on: How influenza virus inhibits early antiviral responses

By: profvrr

profvrr — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:50:04 +0000

There are examples of influenza viruses going back into birds and
other animals from humans. But even if it did not, the virus is
certainly not a dead end infection in humans - it is transmitted
extensively. For example the 1918 H1N1 virus was transmitted among
humans until 1957.

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 5:05 AM,

By: gsgs

gsgs — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:04:10 +0000

flu-A doesn't go back from humans to birds and it dies in humans when the
next pandemic comes with (segments from) a new virus jumping
from birds to humans.
No transfer to birds of mutations developed in humans.
Except maybe occasional picks, but no sustained transmission of human mutations
in birds.
It doesn't seem to jump back from swine or horses to birds either.
I'm not aware of any such example

By: profvrr

profvrr — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:50:04 +0000

By: gsgs

gsgs — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:04:10 +0000

By: profvrr

profvrr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:32:14 +0000

I would not think such a recombinant virus would be so scary – both
the old human H1N1 and the new H1N1 viruses encode an NS1 that binds
TRIM25.

By: profvrr

profvrr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:12:37 +0000

Yes, birds have an innate immune system, although its interaction with
viruses has been much less well studied. I would not say that
influenza is a dead end infection in humans – it is transmitted among
humans, evolves in humans, and transmitted back to animals. In a dead
end infection, the virus is not transmitted to other humans.

By: Chris Upton

Chris Upton — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:40:00 +0000

So what happens in a H1N1 reassortment with 7 segments from current swineflu and a segment 8 from old human H1N1? Is that scary?

By: gsgs

gsgs — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:11:43 +0000

and this all works the same way in birds ?
fla-A evolves in birds and humans are a dead end,
so why bother about human immunity ?
(if you are a flu-A virus, I mean)