4 ms·
New drug forces flu virus into ‘error catastrophe,’ overwhelming with mutations
- ars 7y ago"Even though sequencing clearly shows the virus trying to resist the drug, no resistant strains developed." I don't understand how that works. How does it "try" to resist? Isn't this all-or-nothing to the virus? Either it reproduces or it doesn't?
- tonydiep 7y agoThey mutate. 'Resist' implies intent which they don't have. But they mutate when they reproduce. Some mutations will given them drug resistance but they haven't lucked into them yet.
- djmips 7y agoIf this formulation encourages mutations, doesn't that feel like it will play right into your described method of lucking into resistance?
- perl4ever 7y agoSeems like replacing cytosine could have some negative side effects if it occurs in the patient's cells as well as the virus's.