Home
Todd Suomela's Library tagged → View Popular
How to cure diseases before they have even evolved - health - 10 August 2009 - New Scientist
Goldblatt and a few other researchers think they have the answer. They are working on an entirely new class of antiviral drugs that should do something seemingly impossible: work against a wide range of existing viruses and also be effective against viruses that have not even evolved yet.
-
What if, Goldblatt wondered, some host proteins are essential for viral replication but not for the survival of the host? If so, disabling these proteins should block viral replication without killing healthy cells.
-
It remains early days for host-targeted antiviral therapy, as this approach is known. Indeed, many experts are sceptical about the entire notion. "People in infectious disease are comfortable with targeting the pathogen. They're not comfortable with targeting the host," says Goldblatt. One reason is the higher risk of side effects, especially with infections that require lengthy treatment.
"Until we can get these things into humans and test them, it's a little bit of a crapshoot as to whether they will work," says Michael Kurilla, who coordinates biodefence research at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Painter's Post
A Daily Aggregation that Artists and Other Creative People may find Useful
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Sponsored Links
Top Contributors
Groups interested in news
-
All about Firefox
Items: 14 | Visits: 262
Created by: Hexy Hwang
-
News Links
Links for my news sites
Items: 23 | Visits: 1257
Created by: Lakshminarayanan Venugopal
-
Credibility in the New News
Reading suggestions for the...
Items: 12 | Visits: 394
Created by: tony curzon price
Highlighter, Sticky notes, Tagging, Groups and Network: integrated suite dramatically boosting research productivity. Learn more »
Join Diigo