Study finds estrogen may help protect women against flu

In an American Physiological Society news release, Klein advises that previous studies have, in fact, already shown that estrogens do possess antiviral properties against the likes of the hepatitis virus and HIV as well as Ebola.

To reach their conclusions, she and her colleagues collected cells from the nasal passages of female and male volunteers.

They exposed the batches of these cells to various kinds of estrogens, such as the general levels of naturally occurring estrogen, various kinds of selective estrogen receptor modulators or bisphenol A, an estrogen-like chemical present in many plastics. They then exposed the cells to varied types of synthetic estrogen-like substances found in hormone replacement medicines.

The results of the study showed that female cells that received estrogen derivatives had nearly 1,000 times lesser viral replications than those that were not exposed.

Klein explained that although estrogen is produced by men, their cells have quite less receptors for the hormone.

The findings in this new study support earlier evidence from studies in animals that showed protective effects of estrogen against the flu. One of the empirical differences between the two is that man’s estrogen has less receptors than that of female’s estrogen. When all of the cell samples were introduced to the virus along with estrogen, they saw there were less severe symptoms in cells belonging to women.

These findings suggest that estrogen could be part of flu treatment in the future. However, she doesn’t recommend women seek hormone therapies for this objective, as other side effects could include increased risk of cancer.

Apparently, estrogen reduces the virus’ ability to reproduce, but only in women.

Despite the little setback, Klein says the study suggests that women who are presently undergoing hormone replacement therapy may get an added benefit of decreasing their susceptibility to infection.

She goes on to say, “Being on hormone replacement therapy could be one way to mitigate the severity of this disease, which is exciting, simple and cheap”.

This research was supported by grants from the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging (R01AI097417, R01AI72502 and T32 AI007417) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHSN272201400007C).