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Overview Research is essential to preparing for a pandemic. Expanding research on influenza viruses will lead to better understanding of how these viruses change over time and how the viruses spread. From this research will come new ways to prevent and treat influenza, and will increase the ability to respond to a pandemic. Vaccination is one of the most effective ways to minimize suffering and death from influenza. In FY 2006, President Bush approved an unprecedented amount of resources to fund vaccine research, development, and procurement. That funding will support research on faster and more efficient ways to produce vaccine as well as ways to extend a given supply of vaccine. There is also research into effective antivirals, seeking medications that can effectively reduce the severity of an influenza attack.
Timeline
Check the research events that have taken place since 1997, when the world's first known cases of avian influenza virus transferred directly from birds to humans.- History of Pandemics
See links that detail the chronology and history of pandemic influenza.
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Pandemic Research - Prediction/Modeling
The Next Influenza Pandemic: Can It Be Predicted?
JAMA, 297, 2025-2027 (9 May 2007). Retrieved May 2007, from http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/297/18/2025.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health discuss why predicting the next pandemic is so difficult and outline steps that can be taken to better understand the behavior of the virus
Read about research, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that uses computer modeling to predict results of different actions to reduce the number of cases and slow the spread of pandemic flu. Includes video clip of two scenarios.
Learn what computer modeling reveals about the impact of a pandemic flu on the Pacific Islands.
- Virus Research
- Blood Analysis Provides Important Insights into Avian Flu Virus (Food and Drug Administration) An in-depth analysis of blood from patients recovering from the H5N1 avian influenza virus has provided important insights into how to combat the potentially lethal virus.
- Second Research Team Finds Same Common Achilles’ Heel in Seasonal and Pandemic Flu Viruses (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
Researchers have identified a common Achilles’ heel in a wide range of seasonal and pandemic influenza A viruses. The study found an infection-fighting protein, or human antibody, that neutralizes various influenza A virus subtypes by attaching to these viruses in the same place. This common attachment site provides a constant region of the flu virus for scientists to target in an effort to develop a so-called universal flu vaccine. Such a vaccine would overcome the annual struggle to make the seasonal flu vaccine match next year’s circulating flu strains and might help blunt emerging pandemic influenza viruses as well. - Scientists Identify Lab-Made Proteins That Neutralize Multiple Strains of Seasonal and Pandemic Flu Viruses (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
Scientists have identified a small family of lab-made proteins that neutralize a broad range of influenza A viruses, including the H5N1 avian virus, the 1918 pandemic influenza virus and seasonal H1N1 flu viruses.
Haemagglutinin Mutations Responsible for the Binding of H5N1 Influenza A Viruses to Human-type Receptors
Nature, 444, 378-382 (16 November 2006). Retrieved November 2006, from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v444/n7117/full/nature05264.html 2006.
This study showed that some H5N1 viruses isolated from humans can bind to both human and avian receptors, in contrast to those isolated from chickens and ducks, which recognize the avian receptors exclusively. Mutations convert the HAs of H5N1 viruses known to recognize the avian receptor to ones that recognize the human receptor. Analysis of the crystal structure of the HA from an H5N1 virus used in the genetic experiments showed that the locations of these amino acids in the HA molecule are compatible with an effect on receptor binding. The amino acid changes that were identified might serve as molecular markers for assessing the pandemic potential of H5N1 field isolates.
Publication in advance of Journal of General Virology (January 2007).
Retrieved November 2006, from http://www.sgm.ac.uk/jgvdirect/82419/82419ft.pdf.
Although the exact mechanism by which PI3K/Akt regulates influenza virus replication, and other biological functions
of PI3K/Akt in virus infection, remain to be elucidated, this study reveals the mechanism underlying PI3K/Akt activation and adds a novel aspect to the functions of the NS1 protein.
Read why scientists are studying the mechanisms within influenza viruses.
- Learning from the Past
- Scientists Isolate Genes that Made 1918 Flu Lethal (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Researchers identify a set of three genes that helped underpin the extraordinary virulence of the 1918 virus. - Study of Ancient and Modern Plagues Finds Common Features (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
Study indicates that understanding common determinants among infectious diseases is essential to preparedness. - Early Pandemic Flu Wave May Protect Against Worse One Later (National Institutes of Health)
Evidence from the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 indicates that getting the flu early protected many people against a second deadlier wave. - Bacterial Pneumonia Caused Most Deaths in 1918 Influenza Pandemic (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
Study finds that pneumonia was caused when bacteria that normally inhabit the nose and throat invaded the lungs along a pathway created when the virus destroyed the cells that line the bronchial tubes and lungs.
Researchers find that the spread of yearly flu epidemics in an area within the US is closely connected with people going to and from work.
Summary of research results comparing the structure of an H5 protein from a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 avian flu virus to the same proteins from other pandemic flu A viruses, including the deadly 1918 virus.- Researchers are discovering the genes and virus proteins that caused so many deaths.
Learn how CDC's research to piece together the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic influenza virus is guiding preparation for a potential pandemic influenza.
- Virus Sharing
A network of researchers will work together to make avian influenza virus sequences accessible to the world's scientific community.
Find out how the WHO collaborates with an international network of laboratories and countries to obtain H5N1 sequencing data.
- Public Awareness/Perception/Knowledge
- Personal Protective Equipment
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Vaccine Research
Study results that substantially alter the existing understanding of how the influenza virus evolves and that could have important implications for monitoring changes to the virus, and predicting which strains should be used for flu vaccine.
Learn the results of an experimental vaccine clinical trial.
Read the article that describes the results of a clinical trial in which an experimental H5N1 avian influenza vaccine induced immune responses in healthy adults.
Questions and answers about testing and evaluating potential avian flu vaccines for people.
Provides summary of draft guidances for manufacturers in developing vaccines for pandemic and seasonal flu. Includes links to both draft guidance documents.
Read meeting notes from September 2003 concerning pandemic influenza and clinical trials.
Learn about current avian flu clinical trials.
Read about WHO's actions to guide, support, and facilitate the development, clinical evaluation, and world-wide access to safe, effective and affordable vaccines against infectious diseases.
A team of researchers, working with a version of the seasonal H3N2 strain of influenza A virus, has been able to us imaging to distinguish five different kinds of influenza virus .
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Test Research - FDA Approves New Laboratory Test (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services)
New test developed to diagnose H5 strains of influenza in patients suspected to be infected with the virus.
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Medication Development
Technology Transfer top of page
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![Click to view global map documenting H5N1 Avian influenza outbreaks by country and type [animal (wildlife, poultry, or both) or human]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090512202907im_/http://pandemicflu.gov/images/sm_pop_image.gif)