Three Genes Could Stop Bird Flu

could open new avenues for research for a bird flu cure or a bird flu vaccine.

Scientists at the University of Tokyo in Japan have been busy with research into the H5N1 bird flu virus and have positively identified about 100 individual genes that are necessary to be found in a person or animal for this deadly virus to replicate. The scientists say that by studying the genetic requirements of the H5N1 bird flu virus they may be able to develop ways of blocking the proliferation and spreading of the virus.

This extremely complicated research which was published in the medical journal Nature explains that viruses cannot reproduce unless they latch on to cell proteins and are able to perform specific mechanisms to continue to reproduce. Scientists hope that by identifying individual “host molecules” they will be able to develop new antiviral therapies.

A number of scientists were involved in the research from Japan, America and Indonesia and they used fruit flies cells infected with the H5N1 virus. The fruit fly cells were used for the research because they only have around 14,000 individual genes thus making it easier for the scientist to locate the important ones.

Out of the 100 genes that were found in the fruit flies cells and which were necessary for the replication of the H5N1 virus, three are also found in human cells. Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka who is known to be one of the worlds’s leading virologists as well as a bird flu expert confirmed that these three specific genes could open new avenues for research for a bird flu cure or a bird flu vaccine.

What is becoming increasingly clear to scientists is that by pooling resources and knowledge about the various mechanisms of influenza viruses and by studying the mutating patterns of the bird flu viruses around the world big advances are being made.

It is reckoned that sometime in the near future a definite vaccine to beat the H5N1 bird flu virus will be discovered.