Free Republic

By taking aim at a process common across many viruses, the drug could one day stop any number of known viruses — and new ones. It’s about as audacious an idea as you can find in the world of infectious disease: a broad-spectrum antiviral — a “penicillin for viruses.” The stakes are incredibly high. The yearly tide of seasonal flu causes three to five million severe cases annually, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The “break-bone fever” of dengue virus threatens roughly half the world’s population. 350 million people today are living with hepatitis B or C, leading to millions...

Chinese researchers have discovered what they say is the first ‘virological penicillin’ – MIR2911, a molecule found naturally in a Chinese herb called honeysuckle. Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is a well-known Chinese herb. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it has been used to effectively treat influenza infection for centuries. Several previous studies have confirmed that the herb, usually consumed in the form of a tea, can suppress the replication of influenza virus. However, the active anti-viral components and the mechanism by which they block viral replication have remained unclear. Now, a team of researchers headed by Dr Chen-Yu Zhang of Nanjing University...