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Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Virus: Unexpected Rewards from the Past

Jeffery K. Taubenberger, David Baltimore, Peter C. Doherty, Howard Markel, David M. Morens, Robert G. Webster, Ian A. Wilson
Jeffery K. Taubenberger
Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USAa
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David Baltimore
Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USAb
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Peter C. Doherty
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australiac
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Howard Markel
Center for the History of Medicine and Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USAd
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David M. Morens
Office of the Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USAe
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Robert G. Webster
Division of Virology, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USAf
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Ian A. Wilson
Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USAg
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DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00201-12
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ABSTRACT

The influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 killed approximately 50 million people. The unusually severe morbidity and mortality associated with the pandemic spurred physicians and scientists to isolate the etiologic agent, but the virus was not isolated in 1918. In 1996, it became possible to recover and sequence highly degraded fragments of influenza viral RNA retained in preserved tissues from several 1918 victims. These viral RNA sequences eventually permitted reconstruction of the complete 1918 virus, which has yielded, almost a century after the deaths of its victims, novel insights into influenza virus biology and pathogenesis and has provided important information about how to prevent and control future pandemics.

  • Copyright © 2012 Taubenberger et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Virus: Unexpected Rewards from the Past
Jeffery K. Taubenberger, David Baltimore, Peter C. Doherty, Howard Markel, David M. Morens, Robert G. Webster, Ian A. Wilson
mBio Sep 2012, 3 (5) e00201-12; DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00201-12

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Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Virus: Unexpected Rewards from the Past
Jeffery K. Taubenberger, David Baltimore, Peter C. Doherty, Howard Markel, David M. Morens, Robert G. Webster, Ian A. Wilson
mBio Sep 2012, 3 (5) e00201-12; DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00201-12
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  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • PUBLIC HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 1918 AND 2009 PANDEMIC VIRUSES
    • INSIGHTS INTO NOVEL CROSS-REACTIVE INFLUENZA VACCINE APPROACHES USING THE 1918 VIRUS HEMAGGLUTININ STRUCTURE
    • INSIGHTS INTO INFLUENZA VIRUS EVOLUTION
    • VIRULENCE, HOST ADAPTATION, AND TRANSMISSION FACTORS OF THE 1918 INFLUENZA VIRUS
    • UNDERSTANDING OF INFLUENZA VIRUS RECEPTOR BINDING
    • PATHOLOGY OF INFLUENZA AND IMPORTANCE OF COINFECTIONS
    • THE ROLE OF HOST INFLAMMATORY RESPONSES IN DISEASE PROGRESSION
    • CONCLUSIONS
    • ACKNOWLEDGMENT
    • REFERENCES
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