The University of Hong Kong has discovered new ways to combat influenza viruses effectively

University of Hong Kong announced on the 15th that its microbiologists have used viral genes and proteins to develop drugs that can effectively suppress influenza viruses.
, according to the Hong Kong University microbiology research team, the current anti-flu virus drug effect is limited, and easy to produce resistance. The team spent more than three years designing the flu DIG3 (defective interfering gene), which effectively inhibits the growth of influenza viruses in cells and is less resistant to resistance.
addition, the team designed a new protein called TAT-P1 as a gene carrier that can inhibit virus growth by importing DIG3 into cells, as well as directly inhibit virus replication by inhibiting the acidification of cellular endosomes, playing a dual antiviral role.
researchers at the University of Hong Kong found that injecting DIG3/TAT-P1 into the respiratory tract of mice one to two days before or six hours after infection with the H1N1 human influenza virus or H7N7 avian influenza virus in laboratory mice was effective in improving survival and inhibiting the growth of the virus in the lungs of mice. This shows that DIG3/TAT-P1 is effective in preventing and treating influenza.
Yuan Guoyong, a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Hong Kong University School of Medicine, said at a press conference on the same day that the researchers used viral genes and proteins to treat influenza by a complex protein that carried some viral genes into cells, interfering with the process of copying viruses throughout the cell.
Yuan Guoyong believes that the results of this study provide important new methods and scientific basis for the treatment of influenza and other viral infections in the future.(Source: Xinhua News Agency, Zhang Yashi