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Using Zebrafish Models of Human Influenza A Virus Infections to Screen Antiviral Drugs and Characterize Host Immune Cell Responses
Published on: January 20, 2017
Protection from lethal influenza virus challenge by oral type 1 interferon
Manfred W Beilharz1, Joseph M Cummins, Alayne L Bennett
1Discipline of Microbiology and Immunology, M502 School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009, Australia. beilharz@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
Abstract:
The persistence of highly pathogenic avian influenza within wild bird populations has forged interest in control measures to limit a possible human pandemic. We therefore investigated the efficacy of low dose oral administration of IFN-alpha as a potential therapy against influenza infection in a murine model. We have identified an optimal low oral dose of IFN-alpha that when delivered daily as prophylactic therapy protects C57BL/6J mice from a lethal challenge with mouse adapted human influenza virus A/PR/8/34 (H1N1). These results provide strong support for the application of low dose type 1 IFN pretreatment to human influenza control.
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