Imperial to lead £2.7 million study as part of UK's response to swine flu

Imperial to lead £2.7 million study as part of UK research community's response

Research aims to find out why some people have severe symptoms - <em>News</em>

By Lucy Goodchild
Thursday 12 November 2009

A £2.7 million study of 500 people hospitalised with ‘swine flu’ during the 2009 pandemic, led by Imperial College London researchers, was announced yesterday.

The study, which aims to discover new treatments and generate improved vaccines, is one of a series of projects aimed at understanding the development and spread of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 – or 'swine flu' – announced today by UK research funders. The projects will look at every aspect of the virus, from the pig farm through to the hospital intensive care unit.

The first cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 were reported in Mexico in March this year. In June, as the number of cases increased, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the spread was now a 'phase 6' pandemic, meaning that the virus had spread globally. So far, over 440,000 people have been confirmed to have been infected worldwide, with 5,700 deaths reported to WHO*.

The Imperial-led project launched today, called Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC), will involve research teams across England and Scotland examining which host (i.e. patient) and viral factors contribute to the severity of swine flu. In addition, the researchers will examine why people with underlying health problems – as well as some previously healthy people – sometimes develop severe disease. Understanding this will help improve clinical management and future policies for vaccination and antiviral drug use.

Professor Peter Openshaw, MOSAIC’s Principal Investigator and Director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London, said: “Although we are still outside the normal flu season the number of swine flu infections is already putting a severe strain on hospitals in many countries, including the UK. Although many people only have mild disease, this pandemic has a serious impact on people’s health and on the economy. It is vital that we understand what is going on inside the body during H1N1 infection so we can make informed decisions about the best way to treat this disease and future outbreaks.

The researchers will examine samples from patients hospitalised with swine flu

“We set up the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial about 6 months before the pandemic started and had the right expertise and resources in place. We were very lucky to be in a unique position to coordinate a national study like MOSAIC. We hope the results of the study will help us to improve vaccines and treatments for swine flu so that fewer people will be infected and so those who are infected can be treated more effectively in the future” added Professor Openshaw.

MOSAIC is one of four projects announced today by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome Trust and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) – together with the Department of Health and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Together, the projects aim to understand how the virus mutates and jumps the species barrier and how it spreads through communities; how the virus causes disease in both pigs and humans and why it affects some individuals more than others; and which interventions are most effective at preventing infection or treating the disease. The results from each study will feed directly into wider policy analysis to ensure maximum access to and benefit from the data. More information on all four projects can be found on the Wellcome Trust website.

Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, says: "If we are to learn the important lessons from the current pandemic of swine flu, we need swift action, collaboration and open sharing of data within the research community. The UK, with its existing networks and research partnerships, is in a strong position to take a lead in monitoring and further understanding this pandemic virus as it continues to spread. This will provide essential knowledge for this and future outbreaks."

Researchers at Imperial will be working on the MOSAIC project with co- investigators in London, Liverpool, the HPA, NIMR, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham and Oxford. MOSAIC, which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and MRC, builds on the UK's Clinical Research Networks and is linked to the Department of Health's clinical information network (FluCIN). Such a large-scale cooperative project has never before been attempted for pandemic influenza

*Figure as of 25 October 2009

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For further information please contact:

Lucy Goodchild
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Imperial College London
E-mail: lucy.goodchild@imperial.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7594 6702 or ext. 46702
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