Horse antibodies might treat bird flu

GUANGZHOU, CHINA - 03/28/06 - The race for an antidote to the avian influenza strain H5N1 has found legs in horses. Extracted equine antibodies allowed mice that were injected with lethal doses of H5N1 to remain alive.

Though it is unclear if the antibody mitigates the effects of the bug or whether it stimulates an immune response by the host, the Chinese researchers, who published the study March 23 in the journal Respiratory Research, report that this therapy could be a viable alternative for protecting people from an encroaching outbreak.

The researchers prepared specific equine anti-H5N1 antibodies from horses vaccinated with inactivated H5N1 virus, then obtained the specific purified fragments by pepsin digestion of the antibodies.

The specific purified fragment identified is "polyclonal and polyvalent, so it may contain a wide variety of antibodies to variable or stable influenza H5N1 virus antigens, and may thus be the value for use in passive immunotherapy for prophylaxis and early treatment of influenza H5N1 infection," the report says.