Researchers map influenza virus

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have succeeded in imaging, in unprecedented detail, the virus that causes influenza.

Researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville worked with a version of the seasonal H3N2 strain of influenza A virus. They have been able to distinguish five different kinds of influenza virus particles in the same isolate -- sample -- and map the distribution of molecules in each of them.

"Being able to visualize influenza virus particles should boost our efforts to prepare for a possible pandemic flu attack," says Dr. Stephen I. Katz, director of NIAMS. "This work will allow us to 'know our enemy' much better."

The research team used electron tomography to make its discovery. ET is a novel, three-dimensional imaging method based on the same principle as the well-known clinical imaging technique called computerized axial tomography, but it is performed in an electron microscope on a microminiaturized scale.