Engineered Human Antibodies Lead To Flu Cure
Michael Harper
One drug maker took to the stage on Monday in San Francisco to announce some very encouraging and positive results at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).
According to the results from preclinical studies, Visterra, Inc. may have found a viable preventative drug against Influenza. Called VIS410, this drug is an engineered human antibody which can be used to ward off Influenza infections, as well as prevent the virus from spreading in times of epidemics and outbreaks.
VIS410 works by targeting hemagglutinin (HA) which is present across all subtypes of the Influenza A virus. Although this HA is resistant to the development of mutations, VIS410 is still able to neutralize these strains of Influenza A in vitro.
Testing the drug even further, Visterra injected mice with a lethal dose of Influenza virus before later injecting them with VIS410. Then, the researchers injected another group of mice with VIS410 before giving them the same lethal dose of the flu virus. These tests proved to be incredibly encouraging for the drug, as 100% of those mice who had first been injected with VIS410 survived the subsequent injection of the Influenza A virus. Likewise, 100% of those mice who had first been injected with the deadly virus were then able to recover from the injection within 72 hours after it had been administered.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112692067/influenza-cure-visterra-vis410-091212/
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