- SCIENCE NEWS - This Week

of data implicating a disturbed transmission of signals carried by glutamate in schizo- phrenia, comments psychiatrist Joseph T. Coyle of Harvard Medical School in Boston. If the G72 gene indeed contributes to thii disorder, its discovery may aid in develop- ing improved drug treatments, he says.

Ann E. hlver, a psychiatric epidemiol- ogist at Johns Hopkins University, calls the new report “very interesting” but awaits codinnation of the findings in further stud- ies. -6. BOWER

New Drugs Beat Old Flu Antiviral agents counter deadly 1918 influenza - A greater killer than the First World War, the influenza virus that swept the globe from 1918 to 1919 took the lives of 20 million to 40 d i o n people. After partidly recreat- ing that deadly virus, a research team has now shown that available flu drugs could probably prevent a new pandemic of the 1918 influenza strain or a similar flu.

In recent years, scientists studying tissue preserved since 1918 have pieced together several genes from this deadly influenza strain, also commonly known as the Span- ish flu (SN: 3/22/97,p. 172). Virologists are investigating why that virus was so lethal compared with typical influenza strains, but its genes and the proteins they encode haven’t offered any obvious answer.

Christopher F. Basler of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and his colleagues have now incorporated several genes from the 1918 flu into an influenza strain that has adapted to mice and typically kills the rodents. The introduced viral genes encode a surface protein called hemagglu- tinin (HA), an enzyme known as neur- aminidase (NA), and two proteins dubbed M1 and M2.

The researchers expected that those genes would reduce the virulence of the mouse-adapted virus. Flu viruses isolated from people rarely prove lethal to rodents, and genes from human-adapted strains typ i d l y weaken rodent-influenza viruses.

Not so for the HA and NA genes of the 1918 flu. The engineered virus containing both ofthese genes readily killed mice, the scientists report in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the NationalAcademy

OLDSTYLE MEDICINE Emergency hospitals, such as this one In Kansas, dealt with the 1918 flu epidemic that killed more than 20 million people.

of Sciences. The HA and NA genes, when each was present alone, lowered virulence. This suggests that the specific combination of HA and NA may underlie the 1918 flu disaster. “In any influenza [strain], the HA and NA have to be compatible for the virus to grow well,” says Basler.

The researchers also tested whether the two recently approved classes of flu drugs combat pseudo-1918 viruses. Starting treat- ment with NA inhibitors before introduc- ingthe HA-NA engineered virus prevented 90 percent of the mice from dying, they found. And all mice infected with a flu strain carrying the 1918 gene for M2 survived when treated with M2 inhibitors, even if treatment began 6 hours after infection.

“The drugs appear to be effective against viruses with the 1918 genes,” says Basler.

In people, these antiviral drugs are more effective at preventing infections than at treating people already afflicted, notes Basler. Consequently, he says, public health officials would probably advocate precau- tionary use of the drugs if they foresaw a major influenza outbreak.

Basler notes that the mouse work was done in a facility especially designed for studying dangerous influenza strains. V i l - ogists at the same facility study a 1997 flu strain that originated in Hong Kong chick- ens and sparked fears of a new worldwide epidemic (SN 12/13/97, p. 372).

“Clearly, once you start putting multiple 1918 genes into a virus, concerns about safety increase,” says Basler. “There’s no guarantee a 1918-like virus couldn’t return, so it’s important to understand what was going on back then.”

Robert Krug of the University of Texas at Austin and other virologists have called for the global stockpiling of NA and M2 inhibitors to ward off a natural influenza pandemic or one started by terrorists. Still, he’s fearful the new study could offer a false sense of security, especially since viruses quickly develop resistance to drugs. “Hong

Kong-like viruses are a bigger threat than the 1918 virus, and we need additional antivirds,” he says. -1. TRAVIS

Bigger, Cheaper, Safer Batteries New material charges u lithium-ion battery wor R - A metalspiced mineral may lead to cheaper batteries for cellular phones and laptop computers. The new material, which researchers would use to make lithium-ion batteries’ positive electrodes, should also be safe enough for building large, lightweight batteries for power-hungry hybrid electric vehicles and power tools.

Lithium-ion batteries, first introduced by Sony over a decade ago, are now widely used as convenient, lightweight, and recharge- able power sources for cell phones, laptops, and some other gadgets. But the batteries’ positive electrode, or cathode, is typically made of lithium cobalt oxide, which is expensive and requires electronic circuitry to keep devices from overheating when charged (SN: 12/16/00, p. 399). This risk also limits the sue of the batteries.

In 1997, researchers at the University of Texas in Austin proposed a new cathode material, lithium iron phosphate, which is cheaper and safer than lithium cobalt oxide. Yet lithium iron phosphate has had one big problem: low electronic conductivity. 2

Now, Yet-Ming Chiang and his cowork- $ ers at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 5 nology have spiced lithium iron phosphate 2 with small amounts of metal ions-such as aluminum, niobium, and zirconium-in a process called doping. The doped materi- $ als’ electronic conductivity is 10 million 3 times that of unaltered lithium iron phos- o phate, putting them on par with conven- 5

196 SEPTEMBER 28. 2002 VOL. 162 SCIENCE NEWS

tional cathode materials, says Chiang. He and his colleagues report their findings in the October Nature Materials.

“The conductivity increase that they see is remarkable,” comments Linda F. Nazar of the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “There’s no other word for it.”

When Chiang recently presented the work to other scientists working on lithium- ion batteries, “it was, you know, ‘Wow,”’ reports Ralph Brodd of Broddarp of Nevada, a battery-consulting company in Henderson, Nev.

Cathodes made of the new material could drop the price of small lithium-ion batter- ies, says electrochemist George Blomgren of Blomgren Consulting Services in Lake- wood, Ohio.

Moreover, the development of a safer cathode material may solve problems that researchers have encountered while work- ing to manufacture large lithium-ion bat- teries, Blomgren says. These would replace the heavier nickel-metal hydride ones typ- ically used in hybrid electric vehicles.

The performance and safety of the new cathode material are “the kinds of things you need to make a good, low-cost battery,” adds Brodd.

The material now needs some technical he-tuning before it ca.n be incorporated into batteries for testing. But if further develop- ment goes well, batteries usingthe new cath- ode material could become available within 2 to 3 YearS, says Chiang. -J. GORMAN

Underground Hijinks Thieving plants hack into biggest fungal network

Some sneak-thief plants have tapped into the most widespread network of soil fungi, and they’re using it to steal food from respectable green plants, amording to a new study of underground connections.

Roots of three kinds of parasitic plants with no chlorophyll of their own have intertwining connections with fungi called arbuscular mycorrhizae, says Martin Bidartondo of University of California, Berkeley. Hundreds of thousands of green- plant species also have such a connection, and they too might be sneaking food from each other, speculate Bidartondo and his colleagues in the Sept. 26 Nature.

The study “opens the door to that possi- bility,” comments David S. Hibbet of Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “That’s very exciting.”

Several groups of fungi grow into roots and then sprawl outwards through soil, connecting trees, herbs, or other plants underground. The arbuscular mycor-

rhizae, a group of the soil fungi in the order Glomales, poke into roots of some 300,000 plants species worldwide. Among networking fungi, these form con- nections with the greatest number of plant species and their networks cover the largest areas.

Researchers have regarded most part- nerships between arbuscular mycorrhizae and green plants as mutually beneficial. The fungi draw out some of the plants’ car- bohydrates and in turn give up minerals collected by their vast network threading through soil.

Scientists suspect that 400 or so par- asitic plants also tap into fungi for food collected from other plants, but it’s been hard to determine which fungi. Before the new study, the few fungal associates known came from a group called ecto- mycorrhizal fungi. These form connec- tions with only about 3 percent of the world’s plant species and are less wide- spread.

Bidartondo and his colleagues exam- ined DNA sequences of fungi taken from the roots of three groups of parasitic plants: the lily-related Arachnitis uni- flora from Argentina and several Voyriella and Voyria species in French Guyana from the gentian family. All the asso- ciated fungi turned out to be arbuscular mycorrhizae.

Roots ofArachni- tis and several green plants growing nearby showed the same type of fungi, opening the possi- bility of plant-to- plant food transfers.

Another surprise was that each para- sitic plant species had only a few fungal species on it. “It has always been assumed that arbuscular myc- orrhizae fungi are rather nonspecific in

Another Polio? Alarming - - West Nile fever risks emerge

Having struck nearly 2,100 people and killed 98 in the United States so far this year, West Nile virus infection amounts to an epidemic. Now, medical workers have found poliolike symptoms in a few victims, and last week, federal officials said that blood transfusions appear to have infected some people.

The first US. cases of West Nile fever were reported in 1999 in New York. Since then, it’s hit 35 other states. The disease is generally transmitted by mosquitoes.

Though flulike symptoms are most com- mon, some severe cases progress to encephalitis, a potentially fatal swelling of the brain, occurs. l b o reports to be pub- lished in the Oct. 17 New England Journal ofMedicine link the virus to rare instances oflong-term paralysis, a symptom that had shown up in birds, horses, and monkeys.

Discovery of West Nile patients with polio sympt~ms is a surprise, says Jonathan

D. Glass of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, a coau- thor of one of the reports. Poliolike paralysis is some- thing “you’ve read about” but never see in the United States anymore, he says.

Pol iomyel i t i s paralysis-caused by spinal cord dam- age-is historically associated with the poliovirus, though other viruses can also cause it, says Glass. Before polio vaccinations began in 1955, the disease was common in the United States.

the plants they colo- UNDERWORLD CONNECTIONS A parasitic JustasGhs’team nize,” says Larry Arachnltls plant in Argentina doesn’t have the realized this past Peterson of the Uni- chlorophyll to make its own food but steals it summer that West versity of Guelph in via a vast underground network of fungi. Nile infection could Canada. “This studv vield Daralvsis, shows a clear exception.*

Hibbet adds that the new study fits with an emerging view of mutualistic partner- ships. The parasite-fungus relationship has probably derived from a plant-fungus relationship based on an exchange of nutrients. This notion of a partnership gone sour “reinforces the view that these mutualisms are not stable endpoints,” Hib- bet says. -s. MlLlUS

researchers and physi&ns at the M e t h A t Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, Miss., dis- covered the same symptom in patients there. Between them, the groups have diagnosed seven people with paralysis from West Nile fever. Some previous cases involved muscle weakness, says Dobrivoje S. Stokic from the Jackson team.

Polio symptoms probably aren’t caused by any particular West Nile strain, says

W W W . S C I E N C E N E W S . O R G S E P T E M B E R 2 8 , 2002 V O L . 1 6 2 1 9 7