Posted on 09/26/2011 7:14:32 PM PDT by decimon
DALLAS - Sept. 26, 2011 –-A compound tested by UT Southwestern Medical Center investigators destroys several viruses, including the deadly Spanish flu that killed an estimated 30 million people in the worldwide pandemic of 1918.
This lead compound - which acts by increasing the levels of a human antiviral protein - could potentially be developed into a new drug to combat the flu, a virus that tends to mutate into strains resistant to anti-influenza drugs.
"The virus is 'smart' enough to bypass inhibitors or vaccines sometimes. Therefore, there is a need for alternative strategies. Current drugs act on the virus, but here we are uplifting a host/human antiviral response at the cellular level," said Dr. Beatriz Fontoura, associate professor of cell biology and senior author of the study available online in Nature Chemical Biology.
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In the latest cell testing, the compound successfully knocked out three types of influenza as well as a smallpox-related virus and an animal virus. Because of the highly contagious nature of the 1918 flu, those tests took place at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, one of the few places that stores and runs tests on that flu strain.
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"We've discovered that REDD1 is a key human barrier for infection," said Dr. Fontoura, "Interestingly, REDD1 inhibits a signaling pathway that regulates cell proliferation and cancer."
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(Excerpt) Read more at utsouthwestern.edu ...
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This LEAD compound - which acts by increasing the levels of a human antiviral protein - could potentially be developed into a new drug to combat the flu, a virus that tends to mutate into strains resistant to anti-influenza.
Actually lead paint from China is now good for you.
Conspiracy to give us all lead poisoning along with autism. /s
>> a virus that tends to mutate into strains resistant to anti-influenza drugs.
I wonder if we’re inoculating ourselves into a corner.
Yeah, that could confuse.
I wonder if we’re inoculating ourselves into a corner.
Could be. Boosting our natural defenses could be the better approach for many infections.
I thought lead was to be avoided at all costs.
I think that's lead and not lead.
Glad you clarified that.
I think that’s just some jargon. I think we would understand that a lead nurse, for instance, would not be a nurse made of a dense metal.
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