Scientists at MIT are developing a new drug that may fight viruses as effectively as antibiotics like penicillin dispatch bacteria. The broad-spectrum treatment is designed to trigger cell suicide in cells that have been invaded by a virus, thereby halting infection, while leaving healthy cells alone.
DRACO- Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) Activated Caspase Oligomeriser, homes in on cells infected with viruses of all types and makes them self-destruct. In lab tests using animal and human cells, the new therapy was effective against 15 viruses, including the common cold, H1N1 influenza, dengue fever, a polio virus, a stomach virus and several types of hemorrhagic fever. "In theory, it should work against all viruses," said Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory's Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group at MIT, who invented the new technology.
The idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to creating antiviral drugs has the potential for huge implications. Until now, drugmakers have had to design a new drug to fight each individual virus strain, and because viruses like to be sneaky and mutate often, it's been an ongoing battle to keep up with them.
"We have created DRACOs and shown that they are nontoxic in 11 mammalian cell types and effective against 15 different viruses, including dengue flavivirus, Amapari and Tacaribe arenaviruses, Guama bunyavirus, and H1N1 influenza," wrote the team from MIT's Lincoln Laboratory in their research published in the journal PLoS One. "We have also demonstrated that DRACOs can rescue mice challenged with H1N1 influenza."
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0022572Actually causes the virus to commit suicide. I like that for some reason.
