Important discovery opens new direction for flu treatment

According to a VNA reporter in Switzerland, researchers in Zurich, Switzerland have identified a series of new molecules considered to be the means of replication of influenza viruses, which could be used to prevent the virus from spreading further.

Illustration photo. (Source: New York Post)

This could be an important development contributing to the search for new flu treatments.

Researchers have long known that when the body is infected with influenza viruses, these viruses will "replicate" and multiply in the respiratory tract. Viruses replicate to reproduce based on host molecules, which leads to the need to identify and block host molecules.

Through research, scientists discovered 20 previously unknown master molecules that promote the growth of influenza A virus. One of the master proteins is UBR4, which the virus needs to transport viral proteins into the cell membrane and build new ones.

This happens as follows: Influenza A viruses enter host cells. The virus components are then transported to the cell surface, where they form new viruses. As a result, up to 20,000 new influenza viruses can develop from a single infected host cell.

According to Professor Silke Stertz from the Institute of Medical Virology at the University of Zurich, unchanged host proteins are crucial for virus replication.

Based on this fact, the researchers tested blocking UBR4 and this inhibited the production of new viral particles in infected cells. This suggests that blocking host molecules is feasible and can be considered as a strategy to treat influenza.

Influenza outbreaks occur almost every year around the world, with some strains, such as the H1N1 flu of 2009-2010, causing a global pandemic. In recent years, some influenza A viruses have been found to be resistant to existing influenza drugs, which can lead to the drugs not responding to patients.

In Switzerland alone, seasonal flu causes 5,000 hospitalizations, mainly in vulnerable groups such as the elderly, and up to 1,500 deaths each year./.

According to vietnamplus