Simon Fraser
University virologist Masahiro Niikura and his doctoral student Nicole Bance
are among an international group of scientists that has discovered a new class
of molecular compounds capable of killing the influenza virus.
Working on
the premise that too much of a good thing can be a killer;
the scientists had advanced previous researchers’ methods of manipulating an enzyme that is key to how influenza replicates and spreads.
the scientists had advanced previous researchers’ methods of manipulating an enzyme that is key to how influenza replicates and spreads.
Their new
compounds will lead to a new generation of anti-influenza drugs that the virus’
strains can’t adapt to, and resist, as easily as they do Tamiflu.
It’s an
anti-influenza drug that is becoming less effective against the constantly
mutating flu virus.
These
increasingly less adequate anti-influenza drugs are currently doctors’ best
weapons against influenza. They help the world beat H1N1, swine flu, into
submission four years ago.
The journal
Science Express has just published online the scientists’ study, revealing how
to use their newly discovered compounds to interrupt the enzyme neuraminidase’s
facilitation of influenza’s spread.
Tamiflu and
another anti-influenza drug, Relenza, focus on interrupting neuraminidase’s
ability to help influenza detach from and infected cell’s surface by digesting
sialic acid, a sugar on the surface of the cell.
The flu virus uses the same
sugar to stick to the cell while invading it. Once attached, influenza can
invade the cell and replicate.
This is
where the newly discovered compounds come to the still-healthy cells’ rescue.
They clog up neuraminidase, stopping the enzyme from dissolving the sialic
acid, which prevents the virus from escaping the infected cell and spreading.
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