Influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (also H3N2) is a subtype of viruses that cause influenza (flu). H3N2 viruses can infect birds and mammals. In birds, humans, and pigs, the virus has mutated into many strains. H3N2 is increasingly abundant in seasonal influenza, which kills an estimated 36,000 people in the United States each year.
Some common strains of influenza have the potential to mutate to evade broad-acting antibodies that could be elicited by a universal flu vaccine, according to a study led by scientists at Scripps Research.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome -coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread to most of the world, causing millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths. A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* shows that a protease inhibitor drug already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could inhibit viral entry.
Researchers at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center have made important discoveries about the immune response among patients who have recovered from mild COVID-19 disease that could help to inform prevention and treatment methods, as well as improve the efficacy of community testing.
Of the seven coronaviruses known to infect people, four cause common respiratory infections that are sharply seasonal and appear to transmit similarly to influenza, according to a new study by University of Michigan School of Public Health researchers.
Influenza is a deadly virus, with about 290,000 to 650,000 deaths worldwide each year. When pandemics hit, the toll can soar: The Spanish flu of 1918 caused 40 million to 50 million deaths, the Asian flu of 1957 caused 2 million deaths, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 caused 1 million deaths.
Were you born in an H1N1 year or an H3N2 year? The first type of influenza virus we are exposed to in early childhood dictates our ability to fight the flu for the rest of our lives, according to a new study from a team of infectious disease researchers at McMaster University and Université de Montréal.
On January 31, 2019, an 11-year old boy in Japan went to a medical clinic with a fever. The providers there diagnosed him with influenza, a strain called H3N2, and sent him home with a new medication called baloxavir.
Researchers have discovered a mutation in strains of influenza treated with a drug that makes the virus resistant to treatment.
Now, a new study published in the journal Science on October 25, 2019, reports on a set of three novel antibodies that bind to another type of viral cell surface antigen called neuraminidase (NA) that is necessary for viral replication.
A newly identified set of three antibodies could lead to better treatments and vaccines against influenza, according to a paper published this week in Science.
About 40 million people contracted the flu last year, with hundreds of thousands hospitalized and 35,400 to 61,000 deaths, including 134 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New research could bring scientists a step closer to developing an effective, universal flu vaccine.
The ever-changing "head" of an influenza virus protein has an unexpected Achilles heel, report scientists funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the National Institutes of Health.
Michigan State University scientists have linked a common food preservative to an altered immune response that possibly hinders flu vaccines.
Results from a 10-year study suggest two strains of influenza that could mix and form a dangerous new strain of influenza spread by dogs.
Last year two critically ill heart patients were facing an uncertain future, but this Christmas Scotland’s first revolutionary ‘Heart in a Box’ transplantees are looking forward with hope.
Researchers developed a novel DNA influenza vaccine based on four micro-consensus antigenic regions selected to represent the diversity of seasonal H3N2 viruses across decades.
Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, today announced that the Phase III CAPSTONE-2 study showed treatment with baloxavir marboxil significantly reduced the time to improvement of influenza symptoms versus placebo in people at high risk of serious complications from the flu, which includes adults 65 years of age or older, or those who have conditions such as asthma, chronic lung disease, morbid obesity, or heart disease.
An early-stage clinical trial testing the safety and immune-stimulating ability of an experimental nasal influenza vaccine in healthy 9- to 17-year-old children and teens has begun enrolling participants at a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit site at Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 16 weeks of non-stop flu season last year leading to 700,000 hospitalizations due to influenza as well as pneumonias that occurred as complications.