Fluhunter: Avian Influenza H8 virus

Technical Details

Influenza viruses are classified into H1 to H16 based on haemagglutinin and N1 to N9 based on Neuraminidase. They are named with 2 letter and numbers. These letters will start with H and N e.g. H1N1, H2N2, H3N2 and so on. These influenza viruses are known to cause the outbreaks regularly throughout the world. These viruses have caused the pandemic outbreaks in the last centuries. In 2009, they caused an other pandemic outbreak of swine influenza H1N1. These influenza viruses circulate in poultry and wild birds throughout the world. The pig is acting as usually mixing vessel to generate the highly infectious viruses causing fatal infection in human and animals, hence these influenza viruses infect a wide range of hosts like dogs, horses, cats, wild life and human beings. Till today there is missing research on the exact range of hosts and exact influenza viruses. Such data is important basic input to develop the prevention measurements and therapeutic intervention options. Once influenza viruses infect the host, they act as pathogen associated molecular patterns, which activate the host immune system through pattern recognising receptors leading to activation of innate immune as well as adaptive immune responses, which leads to elimination of these viruses. If the immune response is not in position to inactivate the pathogen associated molecular patterns, hence leads to fatal disease till these patterns are eliminated from the system. These all result in symptoms like coughing, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, shivering, weakness etc.

These are different methods to detect the influenza viruses. One of them is PCR method, which detects a part of influenza virus in sample. The PCR is highly specific, accurate and sensitive. Therefore it is method of choice in medicine. Genekam Biotechnology AG has developed a number of real time as well as conventional PCR assays. The real time PCR assays give results in the form of Ct values and these are of quantitative nature i.e. one can compare the load of viruses between the samples. It has one of biggest application that one can judge whether the drug or therapeutic measurements are working properly. The gel agarose methods have their own benefits as the results can be genesequenced to see the gene code of the virus. Genekam Biotechnology AG has developed a number of PCR kits for influenza viruses, which can be used in conventional as well as real time PCR settings.

Genekam kits are offered under the mark Fluhunter. They have vast applications e.g. they can be used to conduct research work for Master or Ph.D. thesis as well as Postdoc projects. Such work can be published. If different groups are involved in the research, they can use Genekam kits to give results, which can be compared and have much strong potential to give the correct outputs to be used in prevention measurements. Genekam kits give access to any laboratory in the world to conduct the world class research work on influenza viruses. They can publish also this work on the conferences and journals. Some of the work can be backbone of new medical science. It does not matter whether your laboratory is located in USA or in the remote areas of hills or desert. The researcher can conduct the research.

Government can put the laboratory to monitor the viruses in small towns, which can regularly monitor the areas for potential threats of such viruses. Urgent cases can be located at the local level and the virus can be controlled. Similarly airports can add a PCR laboratory, which can be used to monitor the influenza threat in airlines as airlines are one of biggest accelerator of spreading influenza viruses around the world. Aeroplanes should be regularly checked and measurements should be taken to clean and disinfect the pathogens (Genekam has developed here solutions, which can be used through airlines to control these pathogens).

Real time PCR kits: Contents: Taq, primers, probes, reverse transcriptase, negative and positive controls.