Children are More Susceptive of Influenza and Bird Flu

Recent research advancements and studies suggest that children are more susceptive to the higher respiratory tract expression of avian influenza receptors in comparison to the adults. This clearly means that the children particularly are vulnerable to infection.

Dr.John Nicholls from the University of Hong Kong and his specialized research team used modified immune-histo-chemical techniques to demonstrate more widespread expression of avian influenza receptors throughout the respiratory tract in general. Such specific study was never conducted in past.

Dr. John Nicholls found greater receptor expression in the respiratory epithelium of children than of adults. His team preferred adopting new technologically advanced methods for further investigations and obtained refined and improved results implying that previous findings on the tissue distribution of influenza receptors should now be re-evaluated.

In a complete report on this study that published recently in the online journal “Respiratory Research”, Dr.Nicholls and team explained at length that influenza viruses bind to host cell receptors via sialic acid (SA)-linked glycoprotein.

“The presence or absence of these SA, in the human respiratory tract, is important as human influenza strains have been reported previously to preferentially attach to cells with SA?2, 6Gal linkages and avian strains preferentially bind SA?2, 3Gal”, writes Dr. James Nicholls.

In order to conduct further investigations, the researchers conducted lectin histo-chemical analysis of biopsy and autopsy specimens from the nasopharynx, trachea, bronchus, and lungs of fetuses, infants, and adults. They used Maackia amurensis agglutinin (MAA) to detect SA?2, 3Gal.

Applying a modified “unmasking” technique that increased binding of all lectins, the Dr.Nicholls’s team observed that one MAA isoform (MAA1) showed widespread binding throughout the upper and lower respiratory tract tissues in both child and adult samples.
Samples derived from children demonstrated that MAA1 bound more strongly to the respiratory epithelium of lower respiratory tract in comparison with those from adults. This finding could explain observations establishing that avian influenza strains infect children more readily than adults.

During the study experiments it was also found that the strong binding of MAA1 in upper respiratory tract samples from adults supports evidence from Dr.Nicholls’s research team that the H5N1 avian influenza can infect the human upper respiratory tract. It was in contradiction to the findings of various previous reports that these tissues lack the necessary receptor.

“Understanding the how and why of avian virus infection of humans is a very complex process involving research into properties of H5N1 virus, the host receptor and the cellular response,” said Dr. James Nicholls.

Dr. James Nicholls concluded in his research study report that published in the journal “Respiratory Research”, “we believe that the studies we have done investigating where the receptors are located and their distribution with age is a small step towards unraveling this process and help in finding ways to diminish the potential threat from this emerging infection”.

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