Researchers Make Breakthrough Discovery On 1918 Flu Pandemic Furthering Quest For Protection From Bird Flu

Nashville, TN (AHN) - Scientists have recovered antibodies to the virus that caused the devastating 1918 pandemic flu from the bodies of survivors and say it could be useful if another virus similar to that flu breaks out.

Researchers at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University recovered the antibodies from elderly survivors of the pandemic flu.

About 165,000 Americans were killed in pandemic that struck the world in three waves from 1918 to 1919 and killed an estimated 30 to 50 million people globally, according to the United States Health and Human Services.

Scientists around the world are concerned that a deadly form of the bird flu virus could cause a similar or worse death toll in the future and are conducting research in an attempt to create an effective vaccine.

Samples of the virus were taken from the bodies of victims killed in the outbreak that had been preserved because they were buried in Alaska and were frozen. In a study led by James Crowe Jr., M.D., professor of Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Program in Vaccine Sciences, researchers found that blood samples collected from survivors of the pandemic contained antibodies to the virus preserved in the frozen bodies of the victims in Alaska.

Researchers were surprised at how strong the immunity was 90 years after the outbreak.

"The B cells have been waiting for at least 60 years - if not 90 years - for that flu to come around again," Crowe said in a statement released Sunday. "That's amazing...because it's the longest memory anyone's ever demonstrated."

Findings from the study are published online in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

Other lead researchers on the study along with Crowe were Christopher Basler, Ph.D., at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Eric Altschuler, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School.