IPN develops antiviral against influenza

• April 26, 2024

Three years after the epidemic that paralyzed the country, and in the splendor of the winter season, researchers from the Department of Microbiology of the National Polytechnic Institute They developed an antiviral against the Influenza virus.

The drug is based on the identification of important regions in the viral protein hemagglutinin (HA), an antigenic glycoprotein that is found on the surface of the influenza virus and is responsible for the union of the virus with the infected cell, which detonates the infection viral.

Currently, the specialist explained Blanca Lilia Barrón Romero There are two groups of antivirals that attack this virus: amantadine and its derivatives, which prevent it from entering the cell successfully, although in recent years it has been found that most strains of influenza worldwide resist these antivirals. .

Oseltamivir and zanamivir act by inhibiting an enzyme (important for the release of new viruses such as neuraminidase), present in the envelope of the capsid of influenza virus.

The research, which lasted three years, aimed to find the regions of HA that participate in the changes of structure, and encourage their presence to prevent the development of the disease.

The creation of this antiviral was based on the bioinformatic analysis of the physico-chemical properties of haemagglutinins, which has demonstrated its effectiveness in inhibiting this infection.

"So far there is only one type of antiviral useful to combat infections caused by influenza viruses type A, and are the inhibitors of neuraminidase. For this reason my work has focused on the production of new options that combat other parts of the virus, and thus, through combined therapies against different viral targets, reduce the generation of strains resistant to drugs, "said the specialist Barrón Romero .

The influenza viruses have a high rate of mutations, since the genetic material of these is ribonucleic acid, which means that when making copies and using a viral enzyme there are correction mechanisms, so there is a pattern of very high error.

To this situation is added the abuse of antibiotics that generate more resistant Influenza viruses, consequently a public health problem that, day by day, worries governments more.

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Video Medicine: DRONE UPIITA-IPN (April 2024).