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Curing viruses before they happen

New research could make that goal possible

Wednesday, 25 Nov 2009
By Peter Ostrow
 
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Scientists at the Hauptman-Woodward Institute have an idea that may revolutionize the treatment of influenza and many other viruses.

At the Hauptman-Woodward Institute, the motto is "the cures begin here." And two institute scientists are looking for a way to cure influenza and many other viruses.

"What we're looking at is what's happening inside the cell; once the virus enters the cell, and the reason why that's important is a virus cannot replicate without being inside a cell - without infecting a cell," explained Dr. Tim Umland.

Inside a healthy cell are proteins that the cell uses for its normal functions. When a virus enters the cell, it attaches to a human protein, and the new complex is used to create more viruses.

Dr. Umland added, "And so we want to look at what's happening inside that cell and how we can prevent the virus from replicating, from taking over that cell, and that way curing people."

In order to do that, they've devised a way to actually see the way the interaction happens.

Dr. Wayne Schultz explained, "We take the protein that the virus makes, and uses to infect cells, and we take the proteins from humans, and we make them in the lab. We make them in the lab and then we try to put them together like they would be during a normal infection."

And they've found where the attachment occurs. In this 3D view, the human protein is the large turquoise part.

"What you see in green and blue and red is a small piece of a virus protein that actually sticks to the human protein in order to get into the nucleus," said Schultz. "What we would like to do is try to disrupt that interaction by putting a small drug - a small molecule drug - in that spot," he adds.

If they can do that, the viral protein won't be able to take over the human protein, and the infection will stop. It should work against all kinds of flu viruses, and more.