Laidback Al
December 31st, 2006, 12:43 AM
Detailed Flu Virus Pictures May Help Fight Possible Pandemic
By John Lauerman
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Scientists who took three- dimensional pictures of flu viruses for the first time said the detailed images may help fight a possible pandemic.
The discovery may help scientists understand how flu finds and attacks vulnerable cells, and how protective human proteins called antibodies disable the virus, said scientists led by Alasdair Steven of the U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
The prospect of an influenza pandemic has spurred scientists to seek better data on how influenza changes forms to evade the immune system, causing outbreaks that kill as many as 500,000 people annually. A deadly flu virus as contagious as one that killed about 50 million people in 1918-1920 might kill as many as 81 million today, Harvard scientists said Dec. 22.
``Being able to visualize influenza virus particles should boost our efforts to prepare for a possible pandemic flu attack,'' Stephen Katz, the arthritis institute's director, said in an e-mailed statement today. ``This work will allow us to 'know our enemy' much better.''
The government scientists, working with researchers from University of Virginia in Charlottesville, used an imaging method called electron tomography that makes pictures of microscopic structures in three dimensions. The detail was so fine that scientists were able to distinguish between three different flu strains in one sample, the statement said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aRtPee8UDc4E&refer=healthcare
{hat-tip to christian}
By John Lauerman
Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Scientists who took three- dimensional pictures of flu viruses for the first time said the detailed images may help fight a possible pandemic.
The discovery may help scientists understand how flu finds and attacks vulnerable cells, and how protective human proteins called antibodies disable the virus, said scientists led by Alasdair Steven of the U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
The prospect of an influenza pandemic has spurred scientists to seek better data on how influenza changes forms to evade the immune system, causing outbreaks that kill as many as 500,000 people annually. A deadly flu virus as contagious as one that killed about 50 million people in 1918-1920 might kill as many as 81 million today, Harvard scientists said Dec. 22.
``Being able to visualize influenza virus particles should boost our efforts to prepare for a possible pandemic flu attack,'' Stephen Katz, the arthritis institute's director, said in an e-mailed statement today. ``This work will allow us to 'know our enemy' much better.''
The government scientists, working with researchers from University of Virginia in Charlottesville, used an imaging method called electron tomography that makes pictures of microscopic structures in three dimensions. The detail was so fine that scientists were able to distinguish between three different flu strains in one sample, the statement said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aRtPee8UDc4E&refer=healthcare
{hat-tip to christian}