Friday, December 18, 2009

Scientists discover natural flu-fighting proteins

CHICAGO-U.S. researchers have discovered antiviral proteins in cells that naturally fight off influenza infections, a finding that may lead to better ways to make vaccines and protect people against the flu.They said a family of genes act as cell sentries that guard cells from an invading influenza virus, the team reported on Thursday in the journal Cell.
"This prevents the virus from even getting into the cell," said Stephen Elledge of Harvard Medical School and a Howard Hughes Investigator at Brigham & Women's Hospital.
"It is out there fighting the flu all of the time," Elledge said in a telephone interview.
Elledge and colleagues used a new research technique called RNA interference in which they systematically turned off individual genes and then exposed cells to the flu virus.
Using this method, they discovered a small family of flu-fighting proteins called interferon-indicible transmembrane proteins that boost the body's natural resistance to viral infection.
"If you get rid of it (the protein), the virus can replicate 5 to 10 times faster. What that means is your cells have a mechanism that can block 80 to 90 percent of the virus that gets in," Elledge said.
They also showed that if they make the cell overproduce the protein, they become more resistant to the flu. "If you crank it up, it really shuts down the flu," he said...
PS:I'm just having a good laugh thinking what Bilderberger Sebelius and Who Chan and the head of the CDC will have to say to this....!!!!
As in the days of Noah...

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