8/27/2008 PERMALINK
Achilles heel of 1918 & bird flu viruses found In a enormous breakthrough in the battle against viruses that can kill you, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Rutgers University have reported a discovery that should quickly lead to the development of drugs to eliminate the threat posed by avian flu and other virulent strains of influenza. The researchers have determined the three-dimensional structure of a site on an influenza A virus protein that binds to a human protein target, thereby suppressing your natural defenses to the infection and paving the way for the virus to replicate efficiently inside your cells and kill you. This so-called NS1 virus protein is shared by all influenza A viruses isolated from humans, including avian influenza, or bird flu, and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic virus that killed 50 million to 100 million worldwide. "Our work uncovers an Achilles heel of influenza A viruses that cause human epidemics and high mortality pandemics," said Gaetano T. Montelione, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers. "We have identified the structure of a key target site for drugs that could be developed to effectively combat this disease." So lets all hope that a flu pandemic stays away for another 2 or 3 years to allow time for drugs utilizing this 'achilles heal' to be developed. (Americans should hope for 10 or 12 years, to allow for the absurdly long approval process run by those Luddite Lunkheads at the FDA ~ Editor) ... more