Good Nutrition Can Help Prevent Bad Viruses

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(Deficiency in selenium can have consequences.)

GOOD NUTRITION COULD HELP PREVENT BAD VIRUSES

Once again, a relatively benign virus has mutated into a nasty

pathogen in laboratory mice that were raised on diet deficient in

selenium--a potent antioxidant. This time the mutations occurred in a

common influenza virus--a strain isolated in Bangkok in 1979. And the

mutations persisted in mice fed ample selenium, causing a much more

severe case of flu than the original strain.

The discovery, according to the researchers, demonstrates a unique

mechanism by which viruses can mutate and points to the importance of

antioxidant protection against viral diseases. The selenium level in

the study's deficient diet was one-sixtieth that of the adequate diet.

Seven years ago, UNC virologist Melinda A. Beck and BHNRC

nutritionist Orville Levander reported that a lesser known obscure

virus--a strain of coxsackie--mutated from " Jekyll " to " Hyde " in

selenium-deficient mice. This April, the two researchers and their

colleagues reported that the Bangkok strain of influenza virus also

caused a much more severe case of flu in selenium-deficient mice than

in animals given adequate selenium in their feed. In today's report,

they explain why.

Twenty-nine bases in a normally stable section of the viral genome

had mutated in the selenium-deficient mice. By contrast, there were

no mutations in the same area of the viral genome from selenium-

adequate mice. It shows that the host's nutrition can have

considerable influence on the virulence of viral pathogens and that

the virulence persists in well-nourished animals and, presumably,

people.

The findings have global implications, according to Dr. Levander.

While Americans generally get the recommended dietary levels of

selenium, there are pockets of selenium deficiency around the world

that might be generating harmful mutations in a number of viruses.

And viruses know no boundaries.

http://www.barc.usda.gov/bhnrc/success.html#nutrition