[GlictStiply]

"Nov 16, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – A recent laboratory study has produced more evidence that infection of human lung cells with the H5N1 avian influenza virus leads to intense inflammation similar to what was seen in victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

Researchers from Hong Kong report that lung cells growing in a laboratory responded much more intensely to the H5N1 virus than to an ordinary flu virus, even though the viruses reproduced at about the same rate, according to the report published online by Respiratory Research.

The H5N1 viruses were "more potent inducers" of cytokines and chemokines—chemical messengers that trigger inflammation—than H1N1 viruses were, says the report by a team led by J.S.M. Peiris of the University of Hong Kong. A flood of inflammation-triggering chemicals released by the immune systems has been referred to as a "cytokine storm."

Autopsies of H5N1 avian flu victims in Vietnam and elsewhere have revealed lungs choked with debris from the excessive inflammation triggered by the virus. Similar severe lung damage was frequently reported in victims of the 1918 pandemic, which disproportionately killed people with the strongest immune systems—young, healthy adults."


http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/con...5cytokine.html