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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The medical community is one step closer to understanding why the H1N1 flu virus hasn't taken as sharp a toll on the elderly as it has on children and young adults.
As the H1N1 flu has reached pandemic proportions, an interesting phenomenon has emerged: Medical experts have noticed a presence of pre-existing immunity to the virus in about one-third of H1N1 patients over age 60.
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Researchers have solved one part of this puzzle by discovering more than a dozen epitopes, or structural sites, on the H1N1 virus that are also present on the virus that causes seasonal flu. These sites appear to carry some level of immunity to the new H1N1 virus in people who have been exposed to earlier types of influenza or have been vaccinated for other flu strains in the past.
"These findings indicate that human populations may have some level of existing immunity to the pandemic H1N1 influenza and may explain why the 2009 H1N1-related symptoms have been generally mild," Carol Cardona, veterinarian and Cooperative Extension specialist at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in Davis, Calif., was quoted as saying.
Dr. Cardona and colleagues surveyed data from earlier studies of epitopes known to exist on various strains of seasonal influenza A. They found the epitopes, which activate immune cells called cytotoxic T-cells, were also present in the new strains of H1N1 that recently affected California, Texas and New York.
The new study suggests exposure to seasonal flu or the seasonal flu vaccine may also provide some protection against the avian flu, researchers note. About 80 percent of the epitopes essential for T-cell immunity found in seasonal flu and flu vaccine viruses are present in the virus that causes avian flu, or H5N1.
SOURCE: Emerging Infectious Diseases, November 2009
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