Story Summary: The authors of the new study, from Imperial College London, the University of Reading and the University of North Carolina, USA, argue that it is very unlikely that two genetic mutations would occur at the same time. Todays new study adds to our understanding of why avian influenza has not yet caused a pandemic. Todays study suggests that one reason why H5N1 has not yet caused a pandemic is that two genetic mutations would need to happen to the virus at the same time in order to enable it to infect the right cells and become transmissible. We wanted to know why the virus hasnt been able to jump from human to human easily. Our new research suggests that it is less likely than we thought that H5N1 will cause a pandemic, because its far harder for it to infect the right cells. The odds of it undergoing the kind of double mutation that would be needed are extremely low. Its important that scientists keep working on vaccines so that people can be protected if such an event occurs, added Professor Barclay. The researchers used a realistic model of the inside of a human airway to study H5 binding to human cells. They made genetic changes to the H5 HA protein to change its shape, to see if they could make the virus recognise and infect the right types of cells. They found that intermediate versions of the virus could not infect human cells, so would die out before they could be transmitted….Read the Full Story

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