Our immune system is so incredibly complex that it remembers every single microbe it has ever fought and defeated. Getting a fever is actually confirmation that your immune system is on alert. But even so, our immune system is far from perfect.
There’s a new type of virus pathogen that raises concerns. As The Guardian reveals, it’s a combination of RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and influenza viruses, and it was observed in action for the first time. The resulting virus is able to infect the lung cells of patients and bypass the immune system.
Co-infections are not too rare
It’s relatively common for a person to be infected with both viruses, influenza and RSV. But now, it became the first time when researchers observed how the viruses behave while they are located in the same cell.
Pablo Murcia, the professor in charge of supervising the new research, explained as The Guardian quotes:
This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before,
We are talking about viruses from two completely different families combining together with the genomes and the external proteins of both viruses. It is a new type of virus pathogen.
The resulting virus was capable of bypassing the influenza antibodies and infecting surrounding cells.
Dr. Joanne Haney from the MRC-University of Glasgow, who also led the new study, said, as The Guardian also quotes:
Respiratory viruses exist as part of a community of many viruses that all target the same region of the body, like an ecological niche,
We need to understand how these infections occur within the context of one another to gain a fuller picture of the biology of each individual virus.
Influenza is a very common virus, and it even kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year. However, its mortality rate has declined over time.
The new research was published in Nature Microbiology.
