Avian flu drug in the making
Researchers have developed what could be used as an effective preventive drug against bird flu. In a study published online in the website of the journal Respiratory Research, researchers have revealed that they have created antibodies against the avian flu virus H5N1 that work in mice both as a preventive drug, or prophylaxis, when administered before infection, and as a treatment for bird flu.
These antibodies are part human, part mouse antibodies and are less likely to be rejected by the human immune system than pure mouse antibodies. Brendon Hanson and colleagues from the DSO National Laboratories in Singapore, in collaboration with Richard Webby and colleagues from St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, the US, have created two different antibodies to recognise slightly different types of H5N1 viruses.
The antibodies were