Researchers have discovered human antibodies that neutralise not only H5N1 bird flu, but other strains of influenza as well. They now hope to develop them into life-saving treatments.

The antibodies — immune system proteins that attach to invaders such as viruses —also might be used to protect frontline workers and others at high risk in case a pandemic of flu broke out, the researchers said.

Several types

In tests on mice, the viruses neutralised several types of influenza A viruses, including the H5N1 avian influenza virus, the researchers reported in Sunday’s issue of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

“We were surprised and actually delighted to find that these antibodies neutralised a majority of other influenza viruses, including the regular seasonal (H1N1 strain of) flu,” Robert Liddington of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Influenza is especially difficult to fight because it cloaks itself in lollipop-shaped proteins called hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which mutate regularly.

Bird flu war could soon be won