Characterization of the Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virus

A personal Synopsys

For a class assignment at Brown Precollege, I put together a dramatic synopsis about one of the most infamous viruses in history: the 1918 influenza strain. Scientists recently reconstructed it using reverse genetics, which sounds like something ripped straight from a zombie movie, but the purpose was serious. By rebuilding all eight of the virus’s gene segments, researchers were finally able to test what made the 1918 strain so virulent. Here is the link to the article, which I strongly recommend reading: https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/flu/about/qa/1918flupandemic.htm

Zombie Virus Unleashed! Scientists Resurrect the 1918 Flu. Here Are Their Findings…

Recently, like a move straight out of a sci-fi zombie thriller, scientists were able to bring back one of the deadliest viruses that caused a pandemic in the history of mankind…THE SPANISH FLU OF 1918!!!!! Using reverse genetics, researchers were able to reconstruct the infamous pathogen back to life, one that killed over fifty million people across the globe. Their hypothesis? They believed that the virus had a unique combination of genes, making it highly virulent. How did they engineer this? By using all eight gene segments from the 1918 flu while comparing it to other hybrid versions of the modern flu strains in chicken embryos, human lung cells, and mice. 

The results showed four major breakthroughs. The first being how lethal it was in mice, killing them within days, causing extreme weight loss, and severe lung damage. It was also able to replicate without trypsin, a trait that is typically associated with modern flu, as it is the protease that enables the virus to infect. In the human bronchial epithelial cells, it showed high levels of infection and growth, which is expected since the flu was known to primarily infect the respiratory system. On a more interesting note, in the chicken embryos, it was also extremely lethal, which points to the fact that the strain is similar to the avian “bird” flu. Therefore, the experiment suggests that its genetics were the perfect storm, especially when looking at the hemagglutinin and polymerase genes, which made it highly lethal. The biggest takeaway from this study is that understanding a historical virus was able to give insight into what could cause future pandemics to be so dangerous, and how scientists can fight back!