Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new flu drug that can be more effective against the existing drug-resistant strains, reports Science Daily.
Researchers were successfully able to treat mice with the new flu drug, which blocked the spread of the flu virus from one cell to another. The new drug could work effectively against the existing drug-resistant strains, mainly caused due to the overuse of these existing drugs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that nearly three to five million people across the globe are affected by influenza every year, causing 250,000 to 500,000 deaths, reports Science Daily. Developing effective drugs to overcome the virus infection is highly essential.
Researchers analyzed the function of the flu virus as it spreads in the body from one cell to another. It uses a protein called hemagglutinin initially and then binds to the healthy cell's receptors and injects its Ribonucleic acid. Then the virus uses an enzyme called neuraminidase in order to strengthen its connection with the human cells and infect other healthy cells, reports Science Daily.
"Our drug agent uses the same approach as current flu treatments -- by preventing neuraminidase from cutting its ties with the infected cell," said UBC Chemistry Professor Steve Withers, the study's senior author. "But our agent latches onto this enzyme like a broken key, stuck in a lock, rendering it useless."
"One of the major challenges of the current flu treatments is that new strains of the flu virus are becoming resistant, leaving us vulnerable to the next pandemic," Withers said, whose team includes researchers from Canada, the UK, and Australia. "By taking advantage of the virus's own 'molecular machinery' to attach itself. The new drug could remain effective longer, since resistant virus strains cannot arise without destroying their own mechanism for infection."
Further research is required in order to try the new drug on humans and may take up to six to seven years before the drug is available for use, said co-author Dr Andrew Watts from University of Bath. "Our drug can work even better in drug resistant strains than in natural viruses emphasizing that it is working through a totally different mechanism."
The findings of the study are published in an online journal Science Express.
