Solve the mystery of rapid death of avian influenza in Japan

A Japanese research team recently announced its findings that they have found some mechanisms for the rapid death of chickens infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (A H5N1 virus), which will help develop new therapies for a variety of infectious diseases The research team led by Hiroshi tsumoto, a professor at Kyoto Fuli University, conducted the study It is reported that in the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, a H5N1 virus is very toxic and can infect humans Generally speaking, chickens infected with the virus do not weaken as they do with other diseases, but die quickly In Indonesia, when the research team used chickens to carry out the infection experiment of a H5N1 virus, it found that the blood vessels of chicken organs had the symptoms of bleeding and congestion Their analysis of the chicken lungs showed that the amount of endothelin vasoconstrictor peptide in the vasopressor was about 3 times of the normal level, while the amount of endothelin vasoconstrictor peptide receptor was about 1.5 times of the normal level The team believes that an abnormal amount of endothelin can lead to a sharp state of bleeding and ischemia, leading to the rapid death of chickens However, the lethal rate decreased from 100% to about 20% on the 5th day after infection However, it is not clear the mechanism of the increase of endothelin and endothelin receptor after infection The team believes that haemorrhagic diseases such as Ebola haemorrhagic fever should have the same mechanism "In the treatment of human Ebola haemorrhagic fever, maybe the inhibitors of endothelin and receptor can play a role as therapeutic drugs," said tsumoto (LAN Jianzhong)