Non-specific immune response -H5

Evololutionary Biology

“The model does not aim to predict the emergence of
new strains of influenza, but it does suggest that a
short-lived general immunity to the virus might affect
the virus's evolution.”

“We therefore inferred that there must be some other
form of interaction between strains happening in the
population,” he said. “The best fit to genetic data
was obtained when a secondary, non-specific immune
response was included in the model, on top of the
normal adaptive immune response which recognizes
individual virus strains.

This secondary response gives a person complete
protection against nearly all variants of the
influenza virus, but only for a short period of time.”
This kind of protection, said Ferguson, would last
only for perhaps weeks after infection, after which it
would fade, rendering a person vulnerable to
reinfection with a different viral strain. "

"Virologists had previously postulated that temporary,
non-specific immunity might exist “but it hasn't been
thought of up until now as being a very significant
driver, either of influenza evolution or of
epidemiology. However, this work indicates that
non-specific responses probably have a critical effect
on both influenza transmission and evolution,” said
Ferguson."

"Led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute international
research scholar Neil M. Ferguson at Imperial College
London — published an article outlining their model in
the March 27, 2003, issue of the journal Nature.
Co-authors are Alison Galvani from the University of
California,at Berkeley, and Robin Bush from the
University of California, Irvine."

http://www.hhmi.org/news/ferguson2.html