Gene mutations can cause rare severe flu

A study of a French girl and her parents showed that a genetic mutation that was previously unknown and would destroy the body's immune system could trigger a rare but potentially life-threatening child's flu.

Gene mutations can cause rare severe flu

According to a survey published in the American Journal of Science, genetic mutations may be the root cause of severe flu in children. Most people get cured after a week with the flu, but the flu can become a very serious disease, even in some rare cases, which is fatal, and the results are confusing for doctors.

The Human Infectious Disease Genetics Laboratory, a researcher at the United States-French International Joint Laboratory, puts forward the hypothesis that serious flu in healthy children may be the result of genetic errors. To test this hypothesis, in January 2011, they were given a genome-wide determination of a seven-year-old child who was infected with severe flu at the age of two and a half after obtaining the consent of the child intensive care unit.



They combined the results of the child's test with the results of their parents' genetic tests. It was analyzed that one of the two copies of the IRF7 gene of the little girl's parents had a mutation, and the little girl inherited the complex of the two mutations. this.

In other words, the transcription factors on the replica of the two IRF7 genes have prevented her from producing interferon when the influenza virus invades - an interferon produced by mice and humans against the epidemic. In the cell culture test for children, the researchers found that her skin cells and immune cells could not produce type I and type II interferons to fight the flu when the influenza virus invaded, causing the virus to replicate without control. .

The parents of the little girls are normal because they have a copy of the IRF7 gene, so they can normally produce interferon against the influenza virus. At the end of the paper, the researchers wrote: "In short, we have shown that immune-related congenital genetic errors can cause severe flu in children, and tailor-made treatments based on interferon can help the disease endanger life. Children with flu."