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Though important advances have been made in treating RNA virus infections such as hepatitis C and influenza, a broad spectrum antiviral drug that throws a blanket over all of them, including more deadly variants like Ebola, has remained out of reach. Scientists are now reporting the discovery of a drug-like molecule that could be used to combat all RNA viruses, by triggering an innate immune response that suppresses and controls the infections.
As a virus spreads through the body, it takes over individual cellular machinery and uses it to make copies of itself, infecting other cells in the process. While the body can fight off some viruses on its own, others are able to mutate to elude these natural defence mechanisms and go on replicating. Drugs have been developed to treat specific viruses, such as hepatitis C, but they are expensive and some hold concerns that their ongoing use may give rise to drug resistance.
So a team led by scientists from the University of Washington set out to better equip the body’s immune system to fight off viral RNA. It has developed a compound that targets a molecule contained in the body’s cells called RIG-1. This molecule is a pathogen recognition receptor, which means that it detects the presence of viral RNA and sets off an innate immune response inside the cell.
Read more…http://www.gizmag.com/compound-immune-response-rna-viruses/41026/