03.05.2012

Nature 2012

After months of debate Kawaoka's study published. Highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses occasionally infect humans, but currently do not transmit efficiently among humans. The viral haemagglutinin (HA) protein is a known host-range determinant as it mediates virus binding to host-specific cellular receptors. The researchers assess the molecular changes in HA that would allow a virus possessing subtype H5 HA to be transmissible among mammals. The researchers identified a reassortant H5 HA/H1N1 virus, comprising H5 HA (from an H5N1 virus) with four mutations and the remaining seven gene segments from a 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus, that was capable of droplet transmission in a ferret model.