WASHINGTON, D.C. .-- There may be a magic bullet after all. Scientists at a small biotech company in California announced at a conference here press today that they have developed a drug that cures the flu by stopping the spread of influenza viruses among cells in the mucous membranes of the nose and lungs.
So far, the drug was tested in animals. If successful in clinical trials scheduled to begin this spring, it could have a huge impact: Some 20,000 Americans die each year from influenza, and the costs of the disease as much as $ 12 billion a year in health care and lost productivity. The new compound "is very exciting," says Robert Sidwell, a virologist at the State University of Utah in Logan, because unlike current vaccines against influenza, it seems to stop all influenza strains dead in their tracks.
the new compound, developed by scientists at Gilead Sciences in Foster City, California, blocks the activity of a key viral enzyme, known as neuraminidase name. the enzyme releases newly formed viral particles from cells in which they are produced, allowing the virus to infect other cells. Animals and test tube studies reported in the number of tomorrow Journal of the American Chemical Society show that the new compound puts a stop to all strains of influenza. This success stems from the fact that the active region of neurominidase "is almost identical for all strains of the virus," said Gilead medical chemist Choung Kim. The drug is also rapidly eliminated the symptoms of the flu, such as fever and cough, ferrets, the best animal model of the disease. The compound, tentatively named GS 4104, does not seem to have side effects, Kim said.
Gilead drug is actually the second of its kind. The first blocker neuraminidase was developed by researchers in Australia and the UK in 1993 and is now in clinical trials led by British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome. The two compounds have similar chemical structure - both are small, sugarlike molecules - and the same mode of action, Kim said. Glaxo compound can not be absorbed by the intestine, so it must be given as a nasal spray, nasal drops, or by means of an inhaler.
In contrast, Gilead compound has an additional lipophilic, or grease-loving chemical group that allows him to easily cross the fatty membranes of intestinal cells and thus pass into the bloodstream. "This suggests that the drug may be stable for oral administration" as a pill, said Catherine Laughlin, head of the virology branch of the National Institute of Allergy and division of microbiology and infectious diseases Infectious diseases Bethesda, Maryland. Gilead plans to begin clinical trials this spring with the help of the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche.
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