Virologist Wendy Barclay: ‘Wild avian viruses are mixing up their genetics all the time. It’s like viral sex on steroids’ | Infectious diseases

WEndy Barclay is the leading British virus scientist, head of infectious diseases and head of medical research on virus in Importal College London. An expert in causing influenza viruses and transporting it, worked in the Scientific Consulting Consulting Group (SAGE) and the consulting group of new and emerging respiratory viruses (NERVTAG) during the Covid-19s, provides advice on the risks they pose to the risks they constitute. Corona virus and appropriate medical measures.

What led you to study virus?
After I graduated from Cambridge with a certificate in natural sciences, I thought I might get a job with a pharmaceutical company. Then I saw that the common cold unit in Salisbury was looking for a doctorate to work in the nasal viruses and viruses that cause common cold. I have not studied viruses before, but in the same year – 1988 – the first crystal structure of the virus was published and the rhinus was. The common cold unit was a sharp educational curve.

Was there times that was difficult to be a woman working in virus?
Yes. There is a famous story “silver tea jug” that I tell him about my time as a novice lecturer, as I was always shown to meet the paintings as a symbolic woman. On one occasion, the dean of chemistry turned into it and said: “I will take mines with milk and sugars.” Other men in the room were embarrassed and jumped forward to pour tea before I could. I think it is important for women working in science to have a female role model. I am the head of Implemental section and I am proud to say that I have recruited many young lectures, all of which are excellent. I believe a firm belief that this is because they can see that the empire is a place that a woman can flourish and become leaders.

Tell us about your research in H5N1 influenza birds. What is in the virus that scholars keep awake at night?
Bird flu viruses rotate all the time. The H5N1 sub -type that causes a lot of anxiety at the moment Humans were the first two in 1997, but although it caused severe illness, it has not been less than a pandemic. After that, it again retreated to the inhabitants of wild birds, but never disappeared: we have seen widespread outbreaks of poultry, with some human cases, in the early first decade of the twentieth century. then, In 2014He was raised again. The problem is that these wild bird viruses mix inheritance all the time. It is like viral sex on steroids. At some point, they reach a solution that improves their fitness and their ability to injure new hosts.

So what is happening now?
In 2020, a new H5N1 variable appeared, known as Clade 2.3.4.4B. Wild birds have published them across huge areas and did what the influenza always did in wild birds, as they mixed their genome. Some breeds also had a wide range of mammals, including cows. It seems that there is very focused in the mammary and breast glands, and when another cow goes to the same milking machine, it is transported from one cow to another. Influenza has not been reported before in cows and the virus is so well that we were suspected that between the crossing of birds and become in these herds, the virus must have undergone adaptive mutations.

I think you have just reached Print before (Search paper draft) Some of these mutations describe.
Yes, I was chairing a union of UK viruses looking for how the virus evolved. In a recent study, we identified two main mutations that enabled the virus more efficiently symmetrical copies within the infected livestock cells. The worrying thing is that the same mutations also enable the virus to repeat better in pork and human cells, which means that it approaches one step to adapt to humans. We also found that the Clade 2.3.4.4B viruses have picked up a different gene from Neuraminidase (N in H5N1) of ancient viruses in the early 2000s. The new n helps cut the virus through human mucus more efficiently and target cells in our nose and we fly more easily. This is after another block dominated by Clade 2.3.4.4B viruses To become human adaptation.

So how worried about us?
Whenever bird flu is entered into any mammals, they are subject to mutations that can bring them a little closer to being a type of virus that can spread among humans. To date, we have seen 66 confirmed And eight potential humanitarian cases of the Clade 2.3.4.4B H5N1 virus in the United States. Two of these, one in British Columbia, and the other in Louisiana, caused severe diseases. Earlier this month, the patient from Louisiana died.

Does this mean that we must expect H5N1?
Not necessarily. The virus is able to repetition within human cells, but it has not acquired a set of mutations in the HA (H in H5N1) desired transportation between people across the air. From the laboratory studies of the influenza, we know that, to transportation, the virus must turn to the use of human receptors, but the replacement of receptors is not sufficient on its own to support the transmission of air portable infection. You need a second change that makes H more stable in harsh environments such as drops that we breathe from the respiratory system. We have not seen any evidence of this, whether in people, cows, or any animals in the wild.

How much do we prepare for a bird flu pandemic? And what if the following epidemic had ignited the “X disease”, which is the causes of pathogens unknown to science?
The good news is that the world health The organization keeps pace with the development of the bird flu virus and we have the strains of seed seeds that can be used to make a lot of vaccine in the event of outbreak. We have also tried and tested licensed antiviral drugs, such as Tamiflu and Relenza. Thanks to a flexible vaccine technology, pharmaceutical companies are in a much better position to create vaccines against a new virus, including the new influenza breed or other Coruni viruses.

If there is a pandemic of bird flu and we have to resort to the lock again, do you think people will be compatible as before?
No, I think they will fight. If there is a transformation from two to three days to get a diagnosis and people are forced to miss work when they need to earn money, this is a very difficult decision. But one of the great things we learned during Covid is that people are able to use home diagnosis groups – wipe their nose and throat to test infection. Maybe I have an optimistic vision of humanity, but my vision is a test in the bathroom cabinet for everyone. After that, when you hear that a new virus is spreading, you can make a socially responsible decision to test and whether you want to go out or not.