Breakthrough in Flu viruses

[Guest guest]

" Deem, Rice's W. Professor in Biochemical and Genetic

Engineering and professor of physics and astronomy, and his group are using a

formula they developed several years ago to more accurately predict which

vaccines can halt ever-evolving strains of the flu, including the novel H1N1

variety that the World Health Organization has tagged as a pandemic virus.

" Deem has identified the dominant epitope regions of hemagglutinin, a part of

the virus that the immune system recognizes, as the best candidates for

comparison by the formula. Epitopes are antigens, short for antibody generators.

They're bits of viral protein the body recognizes when the flu attacks, and they

prompt the immune system to make antibodies, destroy the virus and be on guard

against future infection by the same microorganism.

" Deem's technique compares amino-acid sequences of the epitope regions of two

strains of H1N1 -- or any other influenza A virus -- and marks the differences.

The fewer the differences, the more likely it is that one strain engineered into

a vaccine will help prevent the other from infecting a person. "

The rest of the article can be found at this website:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/163372.php

Source: Ruth, Rice University

FYI,

Lottie Duthu