Aug. 16, 2006 — Advanced X-ray technology has helped scientists spot a new target that drug designers might use to attack the dreaded bird flu virus.
Though a new drug would still be years off, the new research being published Thursday offers hope of a fresh way to fight a disease that health experts fear could one day evolve into a deadly human flu pandemic.
"This gives us a new target that we didn't know we had before," said Michael Perdue, a flu expert at the World Health Organization, who had no role in the study.
Researchers used advanced X-ray technology to provide an "atomic picture" of the atoms and molecules that comprise one of the two surface proteins in the H5N1 virus.
Neuraminidase — the "N" in H5N1 — is the protein in bird flu that allows the virus to spread to other cells in the body. Drugs currently used to treat bird flu are based on other neuraminidase models that are not specific to H5N1.
By identifying H5N1's unique blueprint, researchers may one day be able to use drugs that home in on the strain that has killed 139 people in the past three years.
New drugs targeting H5N1 could potentially be used in combination with the current leading bird flu medication — Tamiflu — to reduce the risk of the virus mutating into a resistant form, said John Skehel, lead author of the paper appearing in the journal Nature.
