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New research may alter approach to attack viral infection

Physician Practice Advisor, February 8, 2005

Acute viral infections, including smallpox, may be halted by aiming a drug not at the virus, but at the chemical pathways it uses to spread from cell to cell. This approach may eliminate antiviral drug resistance, according to research by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"The threat of smallpox virus being used as a bioterror weapon makes it imperative that we pursue not only improved vaccines to prevent the disease, but also novel therapeutic strategies such as this that could be employed quickly in the event of a deliberate release of the virus," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, in a press release.

These findings build on earlier work by the researchers in which they determined that smallpox growth factor, a protein produced by the smallpox virus, attaches to a cell membrane receptor called erb-B1. This interaction primes the cell to become a factory for producing new virus particles.

Go to www.niaid.nih.gov for more information.

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