More effective flu medicines could be in the pipeline, with a recent breakthrough by National University of Singapore scientists in understanding how the flu virus infects people.
The Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine study found that flu viruses can hijack a class of proteins called CD151, which are part of human respiratory cells. An active CD151 protein allows the virus to enter or leave the nucleus of its host cell.
Blocking it stops the spread of infection, as newly produced viral material cannot leave the nucleus. Typically, a virus clones itself and multiplies in the nucleus before leaving to infect other cells. Trapped in the nucleus, the virus accumulates, which gives the body’s immune system time to stave off the infection.
The study began in September 2016 and was funded by the Ministry of Education and the National Medical Research Council.
The current stable of flu treatments largely targets viruses instead of humans. Some of these work by blocking viral proteins so they cannot bind to host cells. Vaccines aim to find the “best match” for a particular flu season by predicting the key proteins on the outer coat of the flu virus months in advance.
But since the flu virus mutates every few months, vaccines find themselves playing catch-up. But these are effective only if given early in the infection, and if overused, they lose their potency due to viral resistance, said Assistant Professor Thai Tran from the department of physiology, the study’s lead principal investigator.
According to the World Health Organisation, the flu affects about one billion people a year, killing up to 650,000 people. In Singapore, an average of 3,000 patients daily seek treatment at polyclinics for flu-like illnesses, going by 2018 statistics from the Ministry of Health.
Prof Tran and her team hope to develop CD151 blockers for most flu viruses, such as the common and often fatal H1N1 and H3N2 strains. They will also look to adapt it for viruses which share a similar transmission route, such as the human papillomavirus for cervical cancer.
The study was published in the online issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
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Source: The Straits Times, 12 April 2018