Highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus subtype H5N1 is currently widespread in Asia, Europe, and Africa, with 60% mortality in humans. In particular, since 2009 Egypt has unexpectedly had the highest number of human cases of H5N1 virus infection, with more than 50% of the cases worldwide, but the basis for this high incidence has not been elucidated. A change in receptor binding affinity of ...

Vaccination with the A/PR 8/34 (HO N1) strain of influenza virus can decrease significantly the oncogenic activity of polyomavirus in newborn Wistar rats. This effect was regularly observed when animals were vaccinated with 24 hr after birth, whereas vaccinations performed on Days 3 and 10 failed to influence the oncogenic potential of polyoma virus. In 3 series of experiments, influenza virus ...

BACKGROUND Cellula r immune responses play a critical role in providing help for the production of neutralizing antibodies to influenza virus, as well as producing anti-viral cytokines and killing infected cells in the lung. Heterosubtypic T-cell responses between different subtypes of influenza have been shown to exist in humans and to provide protection against morbidity and mortality associa...

The widespread incidence of H5N1 influenza viruses in bird populations poses risks to human health. Although the virus has not yet adapted for facile transmission between humans, it can cause severe disease and often death. Here we report the generation of combinatorial antibody libraries from the bone marrow of five survivors of the recent H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in Turkey. To date, thes...

Avian influenza virus (AIV) can infect a variety of avian species and mammals, leading to severe economic losses in poultry industry and posing a substantial threat to public health. Currently, traditional virus isolation and identification is inadequate for the early diagnosis because of its labor-intensive and time-consuming features. Real-time RT-PCR (RRT-PCR) is an ideal method for the dete...

Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses occasionally infect humans, but currently do not transmit efficiently among humans. The viral haemagglutinin (HA) protein is a known host-range determinant as it mediates virus binding to hostspecific cellular receptors. Here we assess the molecular changes in HA that would allow a virus possessing subtype H5 HA to be transmissible among mammals....

in this study, the full-length m2 gene of the avian influenza virus (h9n2) was isolated, analyzed and studied in detail. total rna was extracted and cdna of the m2 mrna was obtained by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) using random hexamer oligoes; specific primers were used for amplification of the m2 open reading frame (orf) region. pcr was able to amplify the desirable...

BACKGROUND During a global influenza pandemic, the vaccine requirements of developing countries can surpass their supply capabilities, if these exist at all, compelling them to rely on developed countries for stocks that may not be available in time. There is thus a need for developing countries in general to produce their own pandemic and possibly seasonal influenza vaccines. Here we describe ...

In Egypt, ducks kept for commercial purposes constitute the second highest poultry population, at 150 million ducks/year. Hence, ducks play an important role in the introduction and transmission of avian influenza (AI) in the Egyptian poultry population. Attempts to control outbreaks include the use of vaccines, which have varying levels of efficacy and failure. To date, the effects of vaccine ...

Avian influenza viruses (AIV) of the H5N1 subtype have caused morbidity and mortality in humans. Although some migratory birds constitute the natural reservoir for this virus, chickens may play a role in transmission of the virus to humans. Despite the importance of avian species in transmission of AIV H5N1 to humans, very little is known about host immune system interactions with this virus in...