HiThere
The Living Force
New Scientist today:
"WHY did the 2009 swine flu pandemic kill so many more young adults than children? Paradoxically, it might be because of past exposure to seasonal flu.
When Fernando Polack of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues studied 75 adults with swine flu they found severe cases had more antibodies that bound to the virus but didn't kill it (Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.2262). A tangle of virus and antibodies in their lungs activated an immune system component called complement, which failed to clear the mess and instead attacked lung tissue.
Polack says adults acquire the weak antibodies from past bouts of flu, and that they bind to the novel virus just strongly enough to make it worse. The effect could pose problems for a universal flu vaccine, as it might elicit antibodies that do not bind strongly enough to every flu virus to kill it."
_http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827903.900-had-flu-the-next-pandemic-could-hit-you-harder.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
The article is short, and doesn't say anything about how/if they can discern immune activation because of past flu disease from immune activation because of vaccines.
"WHY did the 2009 swine flu pandemic kill so many more young adults than children? Paradoxically, it might be because of past exposure to seasonal flu.
When Fernando Polack of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues studied 75 adults with swine flu they found severe cases had more antibodies that bound to the virus but didn't kill it (Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm.2262). A tangle of virus and antibodies in their lungs activated an immune system component called complement, which failed to clear the mess and instead attacked lung tissue.
Polack says adults acquire the weak antibodies from past bouts of flu, and that they bind to the novel virus just strongly enough to make it worse. The effect could pose problems for a universal flu vaccine, as it might elicit antibodies that do not bind strongly enough to every flu virus to kill it."
_http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827903.900-had-flu-the-next-pandemic-could-hit-you-harder.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
The article is short, and doesn't say anything about how/if they can discern immune activation because of past flu disease from immune activation because of vaccines.
