Book Description:
Influenza has become an important infectious disease with regard to its enormous clinical and economic impact on population health. Due to the recent pandemic threat by the worldwide spread of H5N1 avian influenza, the World Health Organization has shown its profound concerns regarding the possibility of having the virus spread among humans. These concerns have raised the question of vital importance: in the absence of a specific avian flu vaccine, could antiviral drugs obstruct a pandemic should the virus spread from birds to humans? Since there is a lot of mis-information out there that needs correcting, this book discovers a global view of the fight against influenza.
The comprehensive account of the up-to-date research achievements is written by 50 eminent scientists from around the world (14 different countries - U.S.A., China, Russia, Japan, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Serbia, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, South Africa). The contents cover major critical issues such as: (1) the molecular evolution of influenza viruses, (2) the origin and control of pandemic influenza, (3) the pathology and pathogenesis of avian influenza H5N1 infection in humans, (4) the high resistance of H5N1 influenza A virus to the currently approved anti-viral drugs, (5) the structure-based design of novel, more potent, H5N1 influenza A virus neuraminidase inhibitors, (6) the current progress and pitfalls in the development of adequate vaccines, (7) the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) resources for the global research community to support development of novel influenza therapeutics, (8) the improved strategies of eradicating endemic public health problems through effective, cause-oriented natural therapies, and (9) the prevention policies against influenza pandemic with their applications. This book also indicates the future directions in which the war versus influenza is to be developed, thus ensuring its scientific priority. This material can be enriched in a number of ways, primarily by including additional the “Expert Commentary” chapters. In such a fashion the interdisciplinary character of this book would be even more pronounced.
This book is intended to serve as a valuable professional reference for health care professionals, health science administrators, scientific industry leaders, lab directors, and researchers of various backgrounds, including medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, structural biology, biotechnology, and molecular modeling. Since the separate chapters are largely self-contained, the edited collection is also expected to be used for graduate teaching and, in principle, requires no prerequisite other than a solid background defined by the interface between life and medical sciences.

We’ve partnered with Copyright Clearance Center to make it easy for you to request permissions to reuse Nova content.
For more information, click here or click the "Get Permission" button below to link directly to this book on Copyright Clearance Center's website.

Table of Contents:
Part I - Dedicated to William Graeme Laver (1929-2008)pp.1-28

1. WILLIAM GRAEME LAVER (GRAEME) PH.D. FRS 1929–2008
(Robert G. Webster)

2. THE ORIGIN AND CONTROL OF PANDEMIC INFLUENZA
(The Abstract and first section- the late W. Graeme Laver;
Penny G. Laver and Adrian J. Gibbs*)

3. FLU DRUGS - PATHWAY TO DISCOVERY
(William Graeme Laver)

Part II – Virus Evolution and Pathogenesis of H5N1 Infection in Humans pp.29-90

4. ADVANCES IN MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OF INFLUENZA A VIRUS (Xiu-Feng Wan* and Michael Emch)

5. PATHOGENESIS OF AVIAN INFLUENZA (H5N1) INFECTION IN HUMANS
(Ruishu Deng and Jiang Gu*)

6. THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN AVIAN H5N1 INFLUENZA VIRUS AND DENDRITIC CELL-SPECIFIC ICAM-3 GRABBING NON-INTEGRIN (DC-SIGN)
(Sheng-Fan Wang and Yi-Ming Arthur Chen*)

Part III – Action of Current and Design of Novel Anti-Viral Drugs pp.91-192

7. THE ACTIVITY OF NEURAMINIDASE INHIBITOR OSELTAMIVIR AGAINST ALL SUBTYPES OF INFLUENZA VIRUSES
(Noel A. Roberts* and Elena A. Govorkova)

8. COMPUTATIONAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE BINDING MECHANISM OF CURRENT INFLUENZA VIRUS NEURAMINIDASE INHIBITORS: CORRELATION WITH EXPERIMENT
(Marija L. Mihajlovic and Petar M. Mitrasinovic*)

9. THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY ON THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE INFLUENZA VIRUS AND THE RATIONAL DESIGN OF ANTIVIRALS
(Philip S. Kerry and Rupert J. Russell*)

10. THE STRUCTURE-BASED DESIGN OF NOVEL INHIBITORS OF H5N1 VIRUS NEURAMINIDASE
(Petar M. Mitrasinovic)

Part IV – Vaccines against Influenza pp.193-220

11. ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF VACCINES AGAINST PANDEMIC INFLUENZA
(Petar M. Mitrasinovic)

12. ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AGAINST AVIAN FLU
(Michele A. Zacks and Slobodan Paessler*)

13. ADVANCES IN QUANTITATIVE ANALYSES OF THE HEMAGGLUTININ OF INFLUENZA A VIRUSES AND VACCINES
(Xuguang Li*, Terry D. Cyr, Michel Girard, Changgui Li, Junzi Wang,
Gary Van Domselaar, Aaron Farnsworth, Helen MacDonald-Piquard, and Runtao He)

Part V – Resources for Development of New Influenza Therapeutics pp.221-248

14. NIAID RESOURCES FOR THE GLOBAL RESEARCH COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF NEW INFLUENZA THERAPEUTICS
(Amy Krafft*, Rachelle Salomon, and Martin Crumrine)

Part VI – Natural Therapies pp.249-268

15. MICRONUTRIENTS IN THE GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST INFLUENZA
(Raxit J. Jariwalla, M. Waheed Roomi, Tatiana Kalinovsky, Matthias Rath, and Aleksandra Niedzwiecki*)


Part VII – Prevention Policies and Their Applications pp.269-386

16. THE IKARUS SYNDROME IN THE POULTRY INDUSTRY AND THE CONCERN ABOUT A NEW GREAT INFLUENZA PANDEMIC – WHAT TO LEARN FROM IKARUS’ CRASH
(Sievert Lorenzen)

17. THEORETICAL ASPECT OF PREVENTION POLICIES AGAINST INFLUENZA PANDEMIC
(Shingo Iwami*, Yasuhiro Takeuchi*, Xianning Liu, Andrei Korobeinikov,
Eunok Jung, and Tae-Chang Jo)

18. THE IMPACT OF AN EMERGING AVIAN INFLUENZA VIRUS (H5N1) IN A SEABIRD COLONY
(Suzanne M. O'Regan, Tom C. Kelly, Andrei Korobeinikov*,
Michael J. A. O'Callaghan, and Alexei V. Pokrovskii)

19. CONTROL OF INFLUENZA AT HEALTHCARE FACILITIES IN RESOURCE-LIMITED SETTINGS
(Thana Khawcharoenporn, Anucha Apisarnthanarak*, and Linda M. Mundy)

20. BETWEEN PANIC AND APATHY
THE FIGHT AGAINST INFLUENZA IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Thomas Gstraunthaler)

AFFILIATIONS OF CONTRIBUTORS

AUTHOR’S/EDITOR’S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

About The Editors pp.387-388

Contributors pp.389-394

Index pp.395-420