How to cure diseases before they have even evolved

[n2doc]

10 August 2009 by Bob Holmes

WILL swine flu virus turn nasty as the northern hemisphere winter gets under way? All previous pandemic flu strains started off mild before becoming deadlier, so health authorities are taking the threat seriously. They know that if 2009 H1N1 flu does become more lethal over the next few months, we will be nearly defenceless: there are already signs of resistance to Tamiflu, and any vaccines will be in very short supply.

H1N1 flu is far from the only threat. A new pathogen could emerge at any time, as the SARS virus did in 2002, or a known virus such as that behind Lassa fever could become much better at passing from person to person and spread beyond Africa. Or a rogue scientist, or just a careless one, could release a deadly virus such as smallpox.

"If you look at the viruses that are the biggest threats of modern times, most of them were unknown through human history: HIV, SARS, Ebola (see A spotter's guide to human viruses). You don't know where the next one is coming from. How do you develop therapeutics for the unknown and unknowable, given that you won't have time to develop a vaccine for a new agent after it appears?" he asks.

Goldblatt and a few other researchers think they have the answer. They are working on an entirely new class of antiviral drugs that should do something seemingly impossible: work against a wide range of existing viruses and also be effective against viruses that have not even evolved yet. What's more, it should be extremely difficult for any virus to become resistant to these drugs.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327200.100-how-to-cure-diseases-before-they-have-even-evolved.html

[trotsky]

1. Very exciting developments.

I hope this pans out.