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2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which claimed ~50 million lives. The introduction of influenza viruses and subsequent adaptation to humans, which enabled human-to-human transmission, continues to pose a constant threat of a future pandemic. Despite the efforts to develop antiviral drugs and vaccines, improved surveillance and prevention strategies, influenza viruses continue to circulate in human populations and cause seasonal influenza epidemics around the world each year. In light of the rapid evolution of the virus, globalization, the growing human population and the magnitude of intercontinental travel, outbreaks on the scale of the 1918 influenza pandemic would even today have a devastating effect. This collection includes Reviews and Research articles from across the Nature group of journals to showcase the latest advances in our understanding of influenza virus biology, evolution and adaptation, and advances in surveillance and drug and vaccine development.
As we commemorate 100 years since the 1918 pandemic, research has advanced our knowledge of influenza virulence and pathogenesis, and has highlighted the role of animal reservoirs in the emergence of pandemic strains. Future efforts in understanding viral ecology, zoonosis and in integrating human and animal epidemiology should aid pandemic preparedness.
Increasingly, the pathogens that pose the greatest threats to humans are those that evolve to escape prior immunity and pharmaceutical interventions. In response, we need to employ evolutionary thinking to manage infectious disease.
It is unclear why pregnant women are at high risk of severe influenza infection. Allogeneic pregnancy in mice is now shown to alter both innate and adaptive responses to influenza virus infection, enabling the emergence of more virulent virus variants.
Influenza B virus causes substantial illness globally, particularly in children. Treatment options are limited, as the most widely used antiviral drug appears to be less effective than against influenza A. A new antibody targeting the influenza B neuraminidase shows promise in mice as a therapeutic option.
Clear links between human genes and susceptibility to influenza disease are scarce. A recent study uncovers a gene variant coupled to severe influenza, and shows how it hampers the expression of an antiviral gene that is key to immune cell survival.
The quest to improve influenza vaccines is aided by research into the immune response that they generate. Two recent studies have focused their attention on the specificities of antibodies induced after vaccination with conventional inactivated influenza vaccines.