Skip to Content
800-533-8762
  • Careers
  • Newsroom
  • Health Care Professionals
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
UPMC
  • Find a Doctor
  • Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
    • Frequently Searched Services
      Allergy & Immunology Behavioral & Mental Health Cancer Ear, Nose & Throat Endocrinology Gastroenterology Heart & Vascular Imaging Neurosciences Orthopaedics
      Physical Rehabilitation Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Primary Care Senior Services Sports Medicine Telemedicine Transplant Surgery Walk-In Care Weight Management Women’s Health
      See all Services
    • Services by Region
    • Find a UPMC health care facility close to you quickly by browsing by region.
      UPMC in Western Pa. Western Pa. and New York
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Services
  • Locations
    • Locations by Type
    • Locations by Type
      UPMC hospitals
      Hospitals
      Physical Therapy
      Physical Therapy
      Urgent care
      Walk-In Care
      UPMC Outpatient Centers
      Outpatient Centers
      UPMC Imaging Services
      Imaging
      Community Health Centers
      Community Health Centers
      See All Locations
    • Locations by Region
    • Locations by Region
      UPMC in Southwest Pa. Southwest Pa.
      UPMC in North Central Pa. North Central Pa.
      UPMC in Northwest Pa and Ny. Northwest Pa. & Western N.Y.
      UPMC in West Central Pa. West Central Pa.
      UPMC in Central Pa. Central Pa.
      UPMC in Western Md. Maryland & West Virginia
    • See All Locations
  • Patients & Visitors
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
      Patients and Visitors Resources Pay a Bill Classes & Events Medical Records Health Library Patient Information
      Patient Portals Privacy Information Shared Decision Making Traveling Patients Visitor Information
      Man uses mobile phone
      Pay a Bill
      Nurse reviews medical chart
      Request Medical Records
  • Patient Portals
  • Find Covid-19 updates
  • Schedule an appointment
  • Request medical records
  • Pay a bill
  • Learn about financial assistance
  • Find classes & events
  • Send a patient an eCard
  • Make a donation
  • Volunteer
  • Read HealthBeat blog
  • Explore UPMC Careers
Skip to Content
UPMC
  • Patient Portals
  • For Patients & Visitors
    • Find a Doctor
    • Locations
    • Patient & Visitor Resources
    • Pay a Bill
    • Services
    • More
      • Medical Records
      • Financial Assistance
      • Classes & Events
      • HealthBeat Blog
      • Health Library
  • About UPMC
    • Why UPMC
    • Facts & Stats
    • Supply Chain Management
    • Community Commitment
    • More
      • Financials
      • Support UPMC
      • UPMC Apps
      • UPMC Enterprises
      • UPMC International
  • For Health Care Professionals
    • Physician Information
    • Resources
    • Education & Training
    • Departments
    • Credentialing
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Newsroom
  • UPMC >
  • Media Relations >
  • News Releases >
  • lakdawala flu
Media Relations
News Releases
Central Pa. News
North Central Pa. News
Contact Us
Experts
Community-Focused News
Media Kits
Media RSS
Media Relations
News Releases
Central Pa. News
North Central Pa. News
Contact Us
Experts
Community-Focused News
Media Kits
Media RSS

Chat Keywords List

  • cancel or exit: Stops your conversation
  • start over: Restarts your current scenario
  • help: Shows what this bot can do
  • terms: Shows terms of use and privacy statement
  • feedback: Give us feedback
Continue
Chat with UPMC
RESTART
MENU
CLOSE

​50-Year-Old Flu Virus Model Revamped, Revealing Pandemic Prediction Possibilities

For Journalists

Allison Hydzik
Director, Science and Research
412-647-9975
hydzikam@upmc.edu

Want to Make an Appointment or Need Patient Information?
Contact UPMC at

1-800-533-8762.

Go to Find a Doctor to search for a UPMC doctor.

University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

6/13/2017

Main Content
PITTSBURGH, July 13, 2017 – The scientific textbook depiction of the flu virus is about to get a facelift, due to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine team’s discovery that a model of the influenza genome architecture untouched since the 1970s isn’t so perfect after all.
 
The discovery, reported online and in a coming print issue of the journal Nucleic Acids Research, reveals loopholes in the way the virus packages its genetic material. When one strain of flu co-mingles with another strain inside a cell, these loopholes allow the viruses to swap genetic material and give rise to new strains of flu. Knowing these loopholes and how they interact with each other could give scientists the opportunity to better predict pandemics and find new ways to disrupt the flu virus.
 
“Although influenza has plagued mankind for hundreds of years and poses a substantial public health threat every winter, we know surprisingly little about flu pandemics,” said senior author Seema S. Lakdawala, Ph.D., assistant professor in Pitt’s Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics. “Our discovery may give insight into how the flu virus continually evolves, opening the door to better vaccines and antivirals.”
 
Influenza is a type of virus that uses single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) to replicate, instead of double-stranded DNA. Influenza viruses are made up of eight RNA segments bound by a protective nucleoprotein. All eight RNA segments must come together inside a virus particle to be fully infectious.
 
The classic model of the flu virus has these proteins coating the RNA like beads evenly spaced along a string. However, limitations of techniques used in the 1970s when the model was developed meant that unique features—like exposed RNA loops—were lost. Consequently, the universal depiction of influenza in textbooks is of a uniform random binding of proteins along the entire length of each RNA segment.
 
Lakdawala, who researches how the viruses emerge and spread, teamed up with lead author Nara Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor in Pitt’s Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, who specializes in RNA interactions. The two were curious if there might be any areas along the influenza RNA strand that are more “open” and, therefore, more able to associate with other RNA segments in order to arrive at a package of all eight segments. They used a process called “high-throughput sequencing of RNA by crosslinking immunoprecipitation” (HITS-CLIP) on two strains of influenza A, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain, to get a better understanding for where the proteins bind to the RNA and to see if there were any areas of “naked” RNA.
 
“Honestly, we didn’t expect to find any since we had all learned the ‘beads on a string’ depiction of viral RNA,” said Lakdawala. “But, amazingly, there are several stretches where the RNA was not bound by the nucleoprotein. This discovery opens up a whole new area of research.”
 
Contrary to the classic model, Lakdawala and Lee found there are areas of RNA rich with protein coating and others that are exposed and presumably ripe for binding to other viral RNA during reassortment, or the swapping of genomic material between flu viruses. Evolutionary biology expert Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D., associate professor in Pitt’s Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, guided the all-Pitt team to explore how these loops shape virus evolution in nature and during normal flu seasons.
 
The team is pursuing several potential research opportunities, including predicting the ways different influenza viruses could share genetic material to make new viruses. Knowing this could point scientists to the reassortments most likely to spark a flu pandemic and give public health agencies a leg-up on creating targeted vaccines. There also could be ways to exploit the exposed RNA to make the virus less transmissible and deadly.
 
“It’s really exciting to suddenly have all these research possibilities open up based on this one discovery,” said Lakdawala. “The reason no one’s uncovered this yet is because we all took for granted that 50-year-old research on the genome architecture, which looked really nice and had an easy explanation, was the full story. It shows that if we don’t constantly resample and question scientific dogma, we could miss a big opportunity.”
 
Additional authors on this publication are Valerie Le Sage, Ph.D., Adalena V. Nanni, B.S., and Dan J. Snyder, M.S., all of Pitt’s School of Medicine.
 
This research was funded by the University of Pittsburgh and National Institutes of Health grant U01AI124302.

 

Credit: Seema S. Lakdawala/Pitt
Fluorescent imaging of influenza RNA inside a cell.

Click for high-res image.
Classic vs new flu virus model.

UPMC
200 Lothrop Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213

412-647-8762 800-533-8762

Patients And Visitors
  • Find a Doctor
  • Locations
  • Pay a Bill
  • Patient & Visitor Resources
  • Disabilities Resource Center
  • Services
  • Medical Records
  • No Surprises Act
  • Price Transparency
  • Financial Assistance
  • Classes & Events
  • Health Library
Health Care Professionals
  • Physician Information
  • Resources
  • Education & Training
  • Departments
  • Credentialing
Newsroom
  • Newsroom Home
  • Inside Life Changing Medicine Blog
  • News Releases
About
  • Why UPMC
  • Facts & Stats
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Community Commitment
  • Financials
  • Supporting UPMC
  • HealthBeat Blog
  • UPMC Apps
  • UPMC Enterprises
  • UPMC Health Plan
  • UPMC International
  • Nondiscrimination Policy
Life changing is...
Follow UPMC
  • Contact Us
  • Website/Email Terms of Use
  • Medical Advice Disclaimer
  • Privacy Information
  • Active Privacy Alerts
  • Sitemap
© 2025 UPMC I Affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Supplemental content provided by Healthwise, Incorporated. To learn more, visit healthwise.org
Find Care
Providers
Video Visit
Portal Login