Swiss researchers sequence genome of 1918 Spanish flu virus

Researchers from the Universities of Basel and Zurich (UZH) have sequenced the genome of the Spanish flu virus, thanks to a sample taken from an 18-year-old Swiss boy who died in the city on the Limmat in 1918, when the pandemic spread around the world. The international team of scientists - led by palaeogenetics expert Verena Schünemann from the University of Basel - discovered three key mutations that allowed the virus to adapt to host cells at an early stage of its spread, UZH writes today. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Two of these mutations made the pathogen more resistant to the human immune system, while another mutation increased the virus' ability to bind with cell receptors making it more infectious. In order to sequence the remnants of this 'historical' RNA virus - characteristic of the flu - the researchers used an innovative technique, which in the future will also make it possible to reconstruct other genomes of 'ancient' viruses and thus ...