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Antibodies From 1918 Killer Virus Studied

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SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT

Published: September 3, 2008

The virus that caused the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was so powerful it killed an estimated 50 million people. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that it produced some powerful antibodies against it.

And it is still producing them, to the delight of researchers worried about a repeat the deadly influenza outbreak.

"They're the best antibodies I've ever seen," said Dr. James Crowe, professor of pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt University vaccine sciences program.

TEXT

Crowe was one of the lead authors of a paper published online in the journal Nature that reported on the modern-day creation of antibodies against the 1918 influenza virus.

In 2005, researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology found the 1918 virus in the bodies of people killed during the pandemic. The bodies had been preserved in the permanently frozen soil of Alaska.

The investigators then asked Crowe, whose lab developed methods of making antibodies, to try to make antibodies that would react to the 1918 flu virus. Although skeptical, Crowe agreed to try.

The researchers collected blood samples from 32 survivors age 91 - 101 years and found that all reacted to the 1918 virus, suggesting that they still possessed antibodies to the virus.

Crowe's team then isolated rare B cells, which produce antibodies, from eight of those blood samples and grew them in culture. Seven of those samples produced antibodies to a 1918 virus protein, suggesting that the donors' immune systems were waiting on standby for a long-awaited second outbreak.

"The B cells have been waiting for at least 60 years - if not 90 years - for that flu to come around again," Crowe said. "That's amazing...because it's the longest memory anyone's ever demonstrated."

These antibodies could be used as potential treatments for future outbreaks of flu strains similar to the 1918 virus. And the technology could be used to develop antibodies against other viruses, like HIV.

Most importantly, said Crowe, "the lessons we are learning about the 1918 flu tell us a lot about what may happen during a future pandemic."

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., also contributed to the study. The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

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