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So there’s a certain genre of movies in which a virus strikes a population. A large percentage of the population is quickly infected, people come back from the dead, chaos and looting ensue, etc. Usually though, when it looks like all hope is gone, the scraggly group of survivors discovers that one of them is immune – they have a gene that keeps them from being infected by the disease.

Well, real life is exactly like zombie movies.

Ok, maybe not exactly, but genetic variations do affect the way in which different people respond to infection.

Researchers recently discovered a gene that makes a difference in how influenza manifests in different people. The gene in question is called IFITM3 and a person with a normal copy of the gene is usually able to fight off the flu infection better than those with a different variant of the gene. The paper, entitled ‘IFITM3 restricts the morbidity and mortality associated with influenza’, was published in Nature in April, and is a collaboration by authors from the UK and US.

The authors found that, in an individual with a copy of the gene allele SNP rs12252-c, IFITM3 protein expression is disrupted. The result is an individual who has a much harder time dealing with the infection, and consequently has more severe symptoms. The authors found that hospitalised patients are more likely to have the SNP rs12252-c allele. This study suggests that there is a new group of at-risk individuals who should receive the flu shot as a priority, along with pregnant women, the elderly, and young children.

Professor Paul Kellam of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute commented “Our research is important for people who have this variant as we predict their immune defences could be weakened to some virus infections…Ultimately as we learn more about the genetics of susceptibility to viruses, then people can take informed precautions, such as vaccination to prevent infection.”

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Involved in the influenza field? Check out our Influenza Congress USA, happening in Washington D.C. this November.