DRACO -ANTIVIRUS DRUG TO CURE ALL DISEASES.
A group of researchers at Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Lexington, Massachusetts, United States of America headed by Todd H. Rider published an interesting research article on broad spectrum antiviral therapeutics at PLoS ONE, an online peer-reviewed scientific journal which publishes reports on primary research from any scientific discipline.The article explains a new broad spectrum antiviral approach called Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer (DRACO) which cured 15 different viral infections during clinical trials in mice. The viruses tested includes dengue flavivirus, Amapari and Tacaribe arenaviruses, Guama bunyavirus, and H1N1 influenza and the drug was even capable to rescue a mice challenged with H1N1 influenza, popularly know as Swine flu.
In contrast to the antiviral drugs in use nowadays, DRACO adopts a different approach in combating viral infection. It involves a two stage process. When a virus enters a host cell, it tries to multiply itself by multiplying their genetic material. This process produces baby viruses which then infects other cells, spreading the infection. During this process, virus creates a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) which forms the initial target of DRACO. dsRNA is not found in normal, healthy and uninfected cells.The first protein part of DRACO binds to the viral dsRNA.The second part of the drug induces a natural mechanism called apoptosis, which is a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself, a cell suicide mechanism that enables organisms to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal’s survival.The apoptosis mechanism is activated when two or more DRACOs crosslink on the same dsRNA. If viral dsRNA is present inside a cell, DRACOs will bind to the dsRNA and induce apoptosis of that cell. If viral dsRNA is not present inside the cell, DRACOs will not crosslink and apoptosis will not occur.As the mechanism used by DRACO is to target the viral host cells rather than the viral proteins or genetic material directly, it is believed that there are very rare chance for them to develop resistance against the new drug. DRACOs have the potential to be effective therapeutics or prophylactics for numerous clinical and priority viruses, due to the broad-spectrum sensitivity of the dsRNA detection domain, the potent activity of the apoptosis induction domain, and the novel direct linkage between the two which viruses have never encountered. Due this novel model of operation, scientific community expects that this new drug could be effective against all viruses, at least in theory.
Researches have published the results of experiments on mice only and they are planning to go ahead with higher animals and if found promising, advance towards human trials. As the drug research takes a long time, it is expected that DRACOs will take another 10 years to be declared safe and effective in human beings.
References.
5. www.topix.com
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