TY - JOUR T1 - Hot topics from the Assemblies JF - Breathe JO - Breathe SP - 169 LP - 170 DO - 10.1183/20734735.003614 VL - 10 IS - 2 A2 - , Y1 - 2014/06/01 UR - http://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/10/2/169.abstract N2 - Hot topic articles are short (approx. 200 word) summaries of recent important articles in respiratory medicine written by Junior ERS members (aged 35 years and under). To become a hot topic author please contact James Chalmers, email: j.chalmers@dundee.ac.ukTropism and innate host responses of a novel avian influenza A H7N9 virus: an analysis of ex-vivo and in-vitro cultures of the human respiratory tractAuthors: Chan MC, Chan RW, Chan LL, et al.Lancet Respir Med 2013; 1: 534–542Summary: Influenza A virus is one of the major pathogens that has been a worldwide threat for the past several years. Many studies have tried to produce efficient anti-influenza drugs or vaccines but have been unsuccessful due to the complex proteome of influenza A viruses. The recent emergence of a novel avian A/H7N9 influenza virus in China, in March 2013, again proved the complex proteome of influenza virus and the high possibility for emergence of life-threatening novel viruses. One recent study compared tropism and induction of the pathogenesis of the avian-origin human influenza A H7N9 virus isolates (A/Shanghai/1/2013 and A/Shanghai/2/2013), the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, H7N7 viruses (2003) that infected humans, pandemic 2009 H1N1, and a low pathogenic duck H7N9 virus on ex vivo cultures of human samples (bronchus, lung, nasopharynx and tonsil) and in vitro cultures of primary human alveolar epithelial cells and peripheral blood monocyte-derived macrophages. The study revealed that both human H7N9 viruses infected predominantly type II alveolar epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages, as well as both ciliated and non-ciliated human bronchial epithelial cells, and replicated to higher titres in human bronchus and lung ex vivo cultures. The duck/H7N9 virus failed to replicate in either and human H7N9 viruses were less potent inducers of proinflamatory cytokines compared with the H5N1 virus. Taken together these results suggest that the … ER -