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Some people never forget a face. Others never forget a flu. Even if they were infected more than 90 years ago. A team of American scientists studied 32 people who survived the 1918 flu epidemic. That virus, also called the Spanish flu, killed an estimated 20 to 100 million people worldwide.
Of course many more survived, and some are still around today. The scientists tracked them down and took a small sample of their blood. And they found that all 32 people they tested still had circulating antibodies that could recognize the 1918 flu strain. What’s even more remarkable is that these immune molecules still work. Injecting the antibodies into mice protected the animals from experimental infection with the virus. The results were published online in the journal Nature on August 13th.
The scientists say that these elder antibodies could guide the way to new therapies to ward off flu should a virus similar to the 1918 strain arise. In the meantime, I guess you can be thankful that as your joints grow creaky and your vision fades, at least your immune system stays on its feet.
—Karen Hopkin
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3 Comments
Add CommentReally superbly. The human body has fragilities, but resources incredible too. In Nature it is publish on line 18 August 2008 (today with free access), like Remembrance of viruses past.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, it is just amazing that our immune system has such a rooted memory of their former enemies, and just like it would like to take a revenge when enemies come back again. But whether this kind of long-term memorizing is a universal, or in other words, conventional function of our immune system that precipitates a forever shelter for us fragile human body? Of course not, because I catch up with cold again and again. It seems that this memory is confined to certain circumstances and cases which is hard to distinguish rationally.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow, it is mind-blowing to how deadly flu is. Ha, at first I thought it was just like a common cold.
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