Scary study: Selenium deficiency causes flu virus to mutate into more dangerous forms

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http://news.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-2/Scary-study-3A-Selenium-deficiency-c\

auses-flu-virus-to-mutate-into-more-dangerous-forms-9705-1/

 

(Embargoed) CHAPEL HILL -- Influenza virus that has been passed through mice

deficient in the trace nutrient selenium mutates and emerges from the mice more

virulent than before, a new study shows. While the research was limited to

rodents, it's likely that something similar happens in humans deficient in

selenium and, possibly, in other nutrients, University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill scientists say. That's because humans and mice are so similar

biologically, and the mice were infected with a human influenza virus.

 

A report on the discovery appears in the June 8 issue of the FASEB Journal, a

scientific journal published by the Federation of American Societies for

Experimental Biology. Authors include Dr. Melinda A. Beck, associate professor

of pediatrics and nutrition at the UNC schools of medicine and public health,

and K. , a doctoral student in nutrition at UNC. Dr. Orville A.

Levander, a research chemist with the Agricultural Research Service's Beltsville

Human Nutrition Research Center, who specializes in selenium, also contributed

to the study.

 

In April, the scientists reported discovering that inadequate intake of selenium

boosts damage caused by influenza viruses.

 

" We believe our latest findings are both important and potentially disturbing

because they suggest nutritional deficiencies can promote epidemics in a way not

appreciated before, " Beck said. " Here we looked at flu virus because it

hospitalizes more than 100,000 people each year in the United States alone. But

what we found conceivably could be true for any RNA virus -- cold virus, AIDS

virus and Ebola virus. "

 

She and worked with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and

the Nestle Research Center in Switzerland. They fed groups of mice either

selenium-deficient or normal diets. Later, they exposed both groups to a mild

strain of human influenza virus known as Influenza A Bangkok. Rodents consuming

too

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

7-Jun-2001

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