RMIT scientists in Melbourne have led an international collaboration that potentially unlocks better treatment of viral diseases, including the flu and common cold.
The results were published in the prestigious scientific and medical journal Nature Communications.
Each year the flu virus sends 13,500 Australians to hospital and causes more than 3000 deaths among those aged over 50. The global burden is also staggering, with more than 5 million cases of infection annually with up to 10 per cent resulting in death.
The RMIT senior authors, Dr Stavros Selemidis (ARC Future Fellow) and Dr Eunice To (first author), collaborated with Professor Doug Brooks from University South Australia, Professor John O’Leary from Trinity College Dublin, Monash University’s Professor Christopher Porter, and other scientists and clinicians to investigate how viruses cause disease in humans.
The researchers discovered that a 1.5 billion-year-old cell biological process found in plants, fungi and mammals enhances viral disease in mice and highly likely also in humans. They identified a protein, Nox2 oxidase, that is activated by viruses, including influenza, rhinovirus (the common cold), dengue and HIV.
Once activated, Nox2 oxidase suppresses the body’s key antiviral reaction and its ability to fight and clear the viral infection, which in turn results in a stronger or more virulent disease in mice.
The study also investigated a new prototype drug to treat these debilitating viral diseases.
The researchers found that the Nox2 oxidase protein activated by the viruses is located in a cell compartment called endosomes. They carefully modified a chemical that inhibits or restrains the activity of Nox2 oxidase.
Their customised drug was found to be very effective at suppressing disease caused by influenza infection.
Selemidis, head of the Oxidant and Inflammation Biology Group within the Chronic Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases program at RMIT, said: “Current treatment strategies are limited as they specifically target circulating viruses and have either unknown or very little effect against new viruses that enter the human population.
“We have identified a protein of the immune system that contributes to the disease caused by flu viruses irrespective of their strain.
“We also developed a novel drug delivery system to target this protein, which drastically alleviated the burden of viral disease.
“The strength of this work is the multidisciplinary approach taken and the degree of collaboration. It includes researchers and clinicians from eight universities across Australia, the United States and Ireland.
“This work attracted considerable interest at the NADPH Oxidase GORDON conference in the USA last year.”
To said: “This work identifies a treatment strategy that has the potential to alleviate the symptoms caused by some of the most devastating viruses worldwide, including the flu.”
Learn more: New research points to treatment breakthrough for viruses
The Latest on: Viral diseases
[google_news title=”” keyword=”viral diseases” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]- Urgent considerations for booster vaccination strategies against Ebola virus diseaseon May 8, 2024 at 4:30 pm
With two endorsed and prophylactic vaccines against Zaire ebolavirus (referred to hereafter as EBOV), the number of individuals vaccinated against EBOV worldwide is estimated to range between 500 000 ...
- Large amount of bird flu virus in milk suggests asymptomatic cows are infected with H5N1on May 8, 2024 at 1:21 pm
How is it that so much bird flu virus is getting off of affected dairy farms and into the national milk supply?
- Big data helps determine what drives disease riskon May 8, 2024 at 10:21 am
Working with nearly 3,000 observations across almost 1,500 host-parasite combinations, researchers at Notre Dame University have found that biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, introduced species, ...
- Environmental Changes Are Fueling Human, Animal and Plant Diseases, Study Findson May 8, 2024 at 8:31 am
Biodiversity loss, global warming, pollution and the spread of invasive species are making infectious diseases more dangerous to organisms around the world.
- 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals Outlines Upcoming Clinical Trial of Tafenoquine in Babesiosis in Letter to Journal of Infectious Diseaseson May 8, 2024 at 4:59 am
The U.S. medical scientific community is calling for clinical studies to expand shared understanding of babesiosis, an emerging tick-borne illness.The upcoming 60 Degrees Pharma clinical trial of ...
- Bsal and beyond: Task force helps stave off amphibian disease threaton May 7, 2024 at 2:07 pm
Amphibians—like frogs and salamanders—are the most imperiled group of animal species in the world; infectious diseases are among the greatest threats to their existence. After a decade of research, a ...
- A Fight About Viruses in the Air Is Finally Over. Now It’s Time for Healthy Ventingon May 7, 2024 at 4:00 am
WHO now admits the COVID virus and other germs spread “through the air.” This plain language may help improve research and action to fight disease ...
- Advancement in treatment and health prevention strategies for Infectious Diseaseson May 7, 2024 at 2:14 am
Since 2003, the world has seen over 15 million human deaths due to diseases and pandemics, as well as immense loss of quality of life from food and water safety hazards, which are One Health-related ...
- Global Veterinary Infectious Disease Diagnostics Market to Witness Exponential Growth, Reaching USD 4.9 Billion by 2033on May 6, 2024 at 8:37 pm
The global veterinary infectious disease diagnostics market is projected to have a high-paced CAGR of 10.1% during the forecast period. The current valuation of the veterinary infectious disease ...
- Gates, Novo Nordisk Foundation And Wellcome Commit $300 Million To Climate Change, Infectious Diseases And Nutritionon May 6, 2024 at 7:57 am
The charitable trifecta — juggernauts of medical funding and philanthropy — warned money and attention for global health problems is drying up around the world and that the world’s poorest will bear ...
via Google News and Bing News