Survivors’ blood makes bird flu shield
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Blood taken from four Vietnamese survivors of the H5N1 bird flu virus protected mice from several strains of the virus, researchers reported Monday in the journal PLoS Medicine online.
The researchers extracted antibody-producing white blood cells, called memory B cells, from the survivors’ blood, then used a new treatment to make them produce antibodies continuously. Most of the mice who got the new antibodies survived, while all untreated mice died.
