See Also: Antigenic shift(health)
antigenic shift(medicine)
Antigenic(medicine)
Antigenic variation(medicine)
Antigenic determinant(health)
antigenic competition(medicine)
antigenic switching(medicine)
antigenic modulation(medicine)
antigenic determinant(medicine)
antigenic complex(medicine)

Antigenic shift (health)


A sudden shift in the antigenicity of a virus resulting from the recombination of the genomes of two viral strains. Antigenic shift is seen only with influenza A viruses. It results usually from the replacement of the hemagglutinin (the viral attachment protein that also mediates the entry of the virus into the cell) with a novel subtype that has not been present in human influenzaviruses for a long time. The source of these new genes is the large reservoir of influenzaviruses in waterfowl. The consequences of the introduction of a new hemagglutinin into human viruses is usually a pandemic, or a worldwide epidemic.