Viruses are adaptive. That is to say, they develop countermeasures against treatments designed to defeat them, they mutate and they keep on attacking.
Now, Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Professor Isaiah (Shy) T. Arkin has revealed just how influenza-causing viruses adapt to nullify the effectiveness of the anti-viral drug symmetrel (generic name). The revelation can have significant consequences in leading drug researchers to develop new and more effective means to block influenza and other viruses in the future, according to a Hebrew University press release.
Prof. Arkin's discovery was featured as the cover story in a recent issue of the scientific journal Proteins. Assisting Prof. Arkin in his work were graduate students Peleg Astrahan and Itamar Kass, as well as Dr. Matt Cooper from Cambridge University in Britain.
Arkin, of the Department of Biological Chemistry at Hebrew University's Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, said that while the counteraction of the virus to the drug has been previously noted, this is the first time that the activity that lies behind this phenomenon has been demonstrated. This is because researchers had previously only concentrated on examining the processes taking place at the point of drug-virus interaction, but not the process taking place in the virus itself. Thus, there was only a limited picture of what was actually happening.
This new information on the mutating abilities of the influenza virus will have to be taken into consideration in further anti-viral research, said Arkin.
Now, Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Professor Isaiah (Shy) T. Arkin has revealed just how influenza-causing viruses adapt to nullify the effectiveness of the anti-viral drug symmetrel (generic name). The revelation can have significant consequences in leading drug researchers to develop new and more effective means to block influenza and other viruses in the future, according to a Hebrew University press release.
Prof. Arkin's discovery was featured as the cover story in a recent issue of the scientific journal Proteins. Assisting Prof. Arkin in his work were graduate students Peleg Astrahan and Itamar Kass, as well as Dr. Matt Cooper from Cambridge University in Britain.
Arkin, of the Department of Biological Chemistry at Hebrew University's Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, said that while the counteraction of the virus to the drug has been previously noted, this is the first time that the activity that lies behind this phenomenon has been demonstrated. This is because researchers had previously only concentrated on examining the processes taking place at the point of drug-virus interaction, but not the process taking place in the virus itself. Thus, there was only a limited picture of what was actually happening.
This new information on the mutating abilities of the influenza virus will have to be taken into consideration in further anti-viral research, said Arkin.