4 ms·
Total yokel question, but, while you're here, could you explain why no one has developed broad-spectrum antivirals based on something like chimeric proteins des
by noduerme 4y ago
Total yokel question, but, while you're here, could you explain why no one has developed broad-spectrum antivirals based on something like chimeric proteins described in this paper?
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0022572 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
- 1letterunixname 4y agoThat's virology, a completely different discipline. Virions lack mitochondria, cell walls, organelles, and an ability to reproduce on their own. There is no "broad-spectrum" antiviral because of the many more functional configurations that don't share much of a template, so they are freer to mutate more wildly. The best bet is to rapidly identify emergent vectors and characterize their DNA or RNA to develop mRNA vaccines as with COVID-19. There will be no universal "cure" to the (un)common cold, only systems for developing and deploying vaccines faster.
- jakobnirsen 4y ago[flagged]
- noduerme 4y agoquery, why did you just start an account with the same name / one letter different from the OP to post this single comment?
- noduerme 4y agoI understand the basic biological difference. The mechanism of action of the protein described in the paper, apparently successfully tested against a wide variety of unrelated viruses in mice, seems to be to unfurl itself and trigger apoptosis only in the presence of single-strand viral RNA of sufficient length. I'm asking why that hasn't been followed up on.
- Slava_Propanei 4y ago[dead]