Giuseppe
Emeritus
Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Virus: Unexpected Rewards from the Past
Jeffery K. Taubenberger<SUP>a</SUP>, David Baltimore<SUP>b</SUP>, Peter C. Doherty<SUP>c</SUP>, Howard Markel<SUP>d</SUP>, David M. Morens<SUP>e</SUP>, Robert G. Webster<SUP>f</SUP>, and Ian A. Wilson<SUP>g</SUP>
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Author Affiliations: Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA<SUP>a</SUP>; Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA<SUP>b</SUP>; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia<SUP>c</SUP>; Center for the History of Medicine and Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA<SUP>d</SUP>; Office of the Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA<SUP>e</SUP>; Division of Virology, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children?s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA<SUP>f</SUP>; and Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA<SUP>g</SUP>
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Address correspondence to Jeffery K. Taubenberger, taubenbergerj@niaid.nih.gov.
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.
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Author Affiliations: Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA<SUP>a</SUP>; Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA<SUP>b</SUP>; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia<SUP>c</SUP>; Center for the History of Medicine and Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA<SUP>d</SUP>; Office of the Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA<SUP>e</SUP>; Division of Virology, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children?s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA<SUP>f</SUP>; and Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA<SUP>g</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
Address correspondence to Jeffery K. Taubenberger, taubenbergerj@niaid.nih.gov.
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.
Footnotes
Citation Taubenberger JK, et al. 2012. Reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus: unexpected rewards from the past. mBio 3(5):e00201-12. doi:10.1128/mBio.00201-12.
Copyright ?2012 Taubenberger et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
-Citation Taubenberger JK, et al. 2012. Reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus: unexpected rewards from the past. mBio 3(5):e00201-12. doi:10.1128/mBio.00201-12.
Copyright ?2012 Taubenberger et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 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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