禽流感与禽流感病毒研究进展

对禽流感的症状、传播、感染、流行规律、疾病发生历史、流行监测、诊断、防治以及禽流感病毒的分类地位、命名、病毒粒子形态结构、病毒基因组结构、病毒复制、病毒变异的研究进展作了综合评述,并对该领域的研究热点和方向作了探讨。     

Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus inducing influenza pneumonia in humans

The human disease caused by avian influenza virus in South Asia is a typical example of emerging infection resulting from transmission of a known causative agent to a new host. The first cases with a comparatively high level of lethality rates among patients were registered in 1997 and 1999. The situation is a special phenomenon in epidemiology which requires deep evolutionary and ecological analysis, as well as theoretical interpretation. With the example of avian influenza virus in Western Europe and South Asia in 2003-2004 the practical expediency of modern concepts "foci versus epidemics" and "eradication versus vaccination" is now evident.     

Avian influenza virus

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in chickens and ducks that occurred in 9 Asian countries including Japan alarmed to realize that there is no border for infections and gave a rise to great concern for human health as well as for agriculture. This H5N1 virus jumped the species barrier and caused severe disease with high mortality in humans in Viet Nam and Thailand; 15 deaths of 22 cases and 8 of 12, respectively. A second concern was the possibility that the situation could give rise to another influenza pandemic in humans since genetic reassortment may occur between avian and human influenza viruses when a person is concurrently infected with viruses from both species. This process of gene swapping inside the human body can give rise to a new subtype of the influenza virus to which humans would not have immunity. The outbreaks also emphasized the need to continue active surveillance on avian influenza throughout the year to undertake aggressive emergency control measures as soon as an infection is detected.     

Galectin-1 binds to influenza virus and ameliorates influenza virus pathogenesis

Innate immune response is important for viral clearance during influenza virus infection. Galectin-1, which belongs to S-type lectins, contains a conserved carbohydrate recognition domain that recognizes galactose-containing oligosaccharides. Since the envelope proteins of influenza virus are highly glycosylated, we studied the role of galectin-1 in influenza virus infection in vitro and in mice. We found that galectin-1 was upregulated in the lungs of mice during influenza virus infection. There was a positive correlation between galectin-1 levels and viral loads during the acute phase of viral infection. Cells treated with recombinant human galectin-1 generated lower viral yields after influenza virus infection. Galectin-1 could directly bind to the envelope glycoproteins of influenza A/WSN/33 virus and inhibit its hemagglutination activity and infectivity. It also bound to different subtypes of influenza A virus with micromolar dissociation constant (K(d)) values and protected cells against influenza virus-induced cell death. We used nanoparticle, surface plasmon resonance analysis and transmission electron microscopy to further demonstrate the direct binding of galectin-1 to influenza virus. More importantly, we show for the first time that intranasal treatment of galectin-1 could enhance survival of mice against lethal challenge with influenza virus by reducing viral load, inflammation, and apoptosis in the lung. Furthermore, galectin-1 knockout mice were more susceptible to influenza virus infection than wild-type mice. Collectively, our results indicate that galectin-1 has anti-influenza virus activity by binding to viral surface and inhibiting its infectivity. Thus, galectin-1 may be further explored as a novel therapeutic agent for influenza.     

Seasonal influenza activity in Japan and epidemiological investigation for avian influenza

We analyzed the seasonal influenza activity in 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. In 2004/05 season, the prevalence of influenza started lately. The arrival of a peak of influenzal prevalence was the ninth week, and was late in comparison with an average year. The prevalence scale was very large, and the estimation number of patients was 17,700,000. Since the start of the 2004/05 season, influenza activity has mainly been associated with influenza B viruses. The start of prevalence of 2005/06 season was 50th week and was comparatively early. The peak of the prevalence was the 4th week, same as an average year. Since the start of the 2005/06 season, influenza activity has mainly been associated with influenza A/H3 viruses.H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus have spread through Africa and Europe from Asia. For purpose such as inhibition of the outbreak of new variant influenza, the prevention of human to human infection and expansion, early containment, the public health organization has to do unified epidemiological investigation immediately nationwide. By doing epidemiological investigation, the prevention of infection expansion, specification of the source of infection, assessment of the risk of infection, and early detection of new variant influenza virus and containment, are expected.