New York University researchers have identified a promising pathway to develop an antivirus that can be used to combat a wide range of deadly viruses, in a move that makes humanity to develop the first wide -spectrum antiviral, which can be used to counter future epidemics threats.
The study was conducted by researchers from New York University in the United States, and its results were published in Science Advances on August 27, and Newsweek wrote about it.
“If a new virus appears from a new virus (or some ancient viruses such as measles or influenza), we often do not have vaccines or effective antiviors against these diseases, which may lead to a fatal pandemic.”
He added: “Even if it is possible to develop new vaccines and antibodies, this may take months or years, and during this period the difficult consequences of the disease are spread.”
Unlike bacterial infection – which doctors can start treating immediately with broad -spectrum antibiotics while working to identify specific bacteria – treat viral infections with antivirals, but these antibiotics target specific areas only, and they are effective against a small group of related viruses.
“Dangerous bacterial infection can be contained thanks to the measures that can be taken at an early stage of the course of the disease, thus preventing the conversion of the patients into patients,” said Brownchachig.
He added: “There is no such early intervention of viruses that may cause the next pandemic, and in fact, for many very dangerous viruses endemic in the regions of the world – such as dengue, measles, Zika, etc. – there are no effective antiviors, and the only treatment is palliative.”
The scientific challenge is to develop wide -spectrum antiviors in “the necessity of identifying and exploiting a molecular goal that participates in the virus life cycle, in which various viruses are widely participated.”
Viruses mutate very quickly that proteins with similar function are often different in their structure, even within viral families, so most antivirals treat only one virus or a few viruses within the same family.
Point of common viruses
The team targeted a common feature on the surface of many viruses, which are viral cover glycans, which are structurally preserved sugar molecules through unrelated viral families, and has yet been a non -exploited target for the development of antiviral drugs.
“The hypothesis was that from the N-Glycans on the surfaces of viral covers, we can prevent viruses from cell injury, thus stopping the development of viral diseases, this is a pioneering hypothesis due to its repercussions on one of the biggest problems that have not been solved in the field of public health, which is the urgent need for wide-spectrum anti-viral anti-virals.”
The researchers examined 57 futures for synthetic carbohydrates, which are small molecules designed to be linked to viral glycarians.
They identified 4 main compounds that have succeeded in preventing an infection of 7 different viruses from five unrelated families, including some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world: Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Hindra, SARS-Coffee-1, and SARS-Kof-2 (Corona viruses).
One of the main artificial carbohydrates compounds used a decisive test to treat mice infected with the SARS-Coff-2, about 90% of mice that received artificial carbohydrates, compared to none of them survived in the control group.
More analysis confirmed that vehicles operate by linking to viral cover glycans, a new work mechanism with possible applications not only for infectious diseases, but also for cancer and immune disorders, according to the team.