Feb 23, 2009 (CIDRAP News) - In a development that could create new tools to prevent and treat seasonal and pandemic influenza, researchers have identified and tested human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that can neutralize influenza A viruses, including lethal H5N1 avian influenza.\n\nThe findings raise hopes for a universal flu vaccine and shed light on new options for preventing and treating influenza infections, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday in an early online edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Floyd Chilton and colleagues wanted to examine whether theses fatty acids might have other effects, and developed a dietary intervention strategy in which 27 healthy humans were fed a controlled diet mimicking the w6/w3 ratios of early humans over 5 weeks. They then looked at the gene levels of immune signals and cytokines (protein immune messengers), that impact autoimmunity and allergy in blood cells and found that many key signaling genes that promote inflammation were markedly reduced compared to a normal diet, including a signaling gene for a protein called PI3K, a critical early step in autoimmune and allergic inflammation responses.
This study demonstrates, for the first time in humans, that large changes in gene expression are likely an important mechanism by which these omega fatty acids exert their potent clinical effects
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