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Friday, February 06, 2004The key first stage of infection is for the flu virus to attach itself to the cells in which it will breed. It does this by using spike-like molecules called Hemagglutinins (HA) that bind to particular receptors on the surface of cells in the body. Human and bird virus HAs interact with different cell receptors and therefore bird viruses do not usually infect humans. However, the NIMR team has studied the HA of the 1918 virus in close detail, and found that only minor changes in its structure were required for it to start to bind with human cells as well as bird cells. This gave it the ability to pass from birds to humans, and then between humans - with devastating results. You just never know what those influenza viruses will do. posted by Sydney on 2/06/2004 08:21:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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