Functional Antibodies Found in 1918 Flu Survivors

MONDAY, Aug. 18 (HealthDay News) -- Even after 90 years, survivors of the 1918 influenza pandemic still have functional antibodies to the virus that could help researchers devise strategies to fight a future pandemic, according to a report published online Aug. 17 in Nature.

Xiaocong Yu, Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues studied 32 elderly survivors of the 1918 influenza pandemic, all of whom were born in the year 1915 or earlier.

The researchers found that all 32 subjects were seroreactive to the 1918 virus. The investigators also found that seven of the eight donor samples tested had circulating B cells that secreted antibodies that bound the 1918 haemagglutinin. After isolating B cells from three donors, they generated five monoclonal antibodies that showed potent neutralizing activity against the 1918 virus. The antibodies also cross-reacted with the genetically similar haemagglutinin of a 1930 swine H1N1 influenza strain but not with the haemagglutinins of contemporary human influenza viruses.

"It has long been known that infusion of neutralizing antibodies can protect mice from lethal influenza virus infection, and transfusion of convalescent blood products to 1918 influenza victims may have had a beneficial effect," the authors conclude. "Thus, the monoclonal antibodies described here could serve as potential therapeutics for a re-emergent 1918-like virus. The techniques described here suggest that it may be possible to recover human antibodies that display a wide array of specificities corresponding to the viruses and other pathogens that have infected an individual during their lifetime."

Full Text