Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University
of Pennsylvania have developed a new gene therapy to thwart a potential
influenza pandemic. Specifically, investigators in the Gene Therapy Program,
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, directed by James M. Wilson,
MD, PhD, demonstrated that a single dose of an adeno-associated virus (AAV)
expressing a broadly neutralizing flu antibody into the nasal passages of mice
and ferrets gives them complete protection and substantial reductions in flu
replication when exposed to lethal strains of H5N1 and H1N1 flu virus. These
strains were isolated from samples associated from historic human pandemics –
one from the infamous 1918 flu pandemic and another from 2009.