Published on February 24, 2016 at 3:51 AM
Influenza is able to mask itself, to ensure the virus is not initially detected by our immune system. This is the result of brand-new research from Aarhus University. The researchers behind the study chance that the discovery can easily be used to make much better treatment versus influenza and chronic inflammation conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Some years ago researchers located that the immune system can easily currently monitor viruses and alert the physique when a virus enters into human cells to multiply. Yet brand-new research now reveals that the influenza virus cheats the mechanism and is thus able to circumvent the body’s advanced defence system.
“The virus includes a healthy protein that masks the virus entering the cell. In this way, the influenza virus can easily spread much more easily prior to the immune system recognises that it is a virus and attempts to fight it,” says Associate Professor Christian Holm from the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University.
Together along with Professor Søren R. Paludan, he has actually headed the research project, which has actually additionally comprised contributions from various other researchers at Aarhus University and from a variety of American universities. Their discovery has actually recently been published in the scientific diary Nature Communications.
Impairs defence versus viruses in general
The influenza virus has actually produced this weapon versus the immune system through evolution. The researchers located the mechanism by giving cells in the laboratory an evolutionarily conserved influenza virus protein. The result was that the cells became poorer at defending themselves versus the 2 influenza viruses and various other types of viruses.
“This indicates that the recognition mechanism in the immune system that the influenza virus evades is generally necessary for the body’s ability to defend itself versus viruses. It is therefore necessary easy research understanding for us. The much more understanding we have actually regarding why a virus comes to be dangerous, the simpler it is to make treatments,” explains Associate Professor Christian Holm.
Suppressed immune system can easily additionally be an advantage
The little healthy protein that is able to mask the influenza virus from the immune system is not just interesting in relation to combating influenza. It could be feasible to usage it to combat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, too as the relatively rare illness lupus, which to a excellent extent affects young women. In these diseases, the immune system attacks healthy and balanced cells and tissues – though the reasons for this are unknown – and induces chronic inflammation.
“The protein’s immunosuppressant effect can easily possibly be used to make much better treatments for these types of diseases, where the immune system is chronically overactive. By suppressing the immune system’s reaction, the symptoms can easily be reduced. The outcomes of our research can easily additionally be used to examine this in much more detail,” says Christian Holm.
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