Scientists have developed a new strategy for combating the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has claimed dozens of lives around the world.
They used antibodies from survivors of the virus to stop the full-blown disease from developing in mice.
The discovery could hold the key to finding future treatments for the virus, say the researchers, whose study was published yesterday.
The H5N1 strain has killed millions of birds across the globe and has occasionally been passed on to humans, sometimes fatally.
By mid-May, according to the World Health Organisation, there had been 306 known cases in humans, 185 of them fatal.
But the scientists based in Vietnam, Switzerland and the US, are optimistic that antibodies from Vietnamese survivors could be used in the fight against infection.
The researchers found the antibodies provided significant immunity to mice that were subsequently infected with the Vietnam strain of H5N1.
It cut significantly the amount of virus found in the lungs and almost completely prevented the virus reaching the brain or spleen.
The research, part-funded by the UK's Wellcome Trust, was published in the open-access journal, PLoS Medicine.
Dr Cameron Simmons, a Wellcome Trust scientist at Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam, said: "We have shown that this technique can work to prevent and neutralise infection by the H5N1 bird flu' virus in mice.
"We are optimistic that these antibodies, if delivered at the right time and in the right amount, could also provide a clinical benefit to humans with H5N1 infections."
He added: "In particular, we found that it was possible to administer the treatment up to 72 hours after infection.
"This is particularly important as people who have become infected with the virus do not tend to report to their local healthcare facilities until several days after the onset of illness."
The antibodies were found in the laboratory of Professor Antonio Lanzavecchia at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Switzerland.
Researchers used a new technique that allows them rapidly to reproduce human "monoclonal" antibodies with just a small sample of blood.
Professor Lanzavecchia said that although the research was encouraging, it did not necessarily mean the antibodies would be useful in a pandemic.
But during the 1918 Spanish H1N1 flu pandemic there were multiple reports of doctors using blood taken from survivors to treat patients.
A recent review suggested this treatment was associated with a halving in deaths caused by the virus.
Professor Lanzavecchia said: "We can't say for certain that a pandemic influenza virus will resemble the H5N1 strain that we have been studying, or that the monoclonal antibodies generated using our technique will be able to tackle such a virus.
"Nevertheless, we are encouraged by the broad neutralising activity of these antibodies in the lab and the moderate doses required."
Pupil in H7N2 scare
Pupils and staff are being offered anti-flu drugs after a child became infected in a bird flu outbreak in north Wales, health chiefs said yesterday.
A dozen children, aged nine and 10, and two teachers are being given Tamiflu treatments as a precaution after it emerged they had spent time with the youngster.
The child, who lives close to the farm in Corwen where the H7N2 strain was first found, is responding to treatment at home. This variety is less aggressive than the H5N1 strain.
A statement released by the National Public Health Service for Wales said staff and pupils at Ysgol Henllan school in Denbighshire were at a "very slight" risk of infection.
A total of 12 people are thought to have been infected with the flu and 142 may have come in contact with it and are being monitored.
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