Antiviral Drug News and Research

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Immunotherapy combination can shrink viral reservoir in HIV model

Stimulating immune cells with two cancer immunotherapies together can shrink the size of the viral "reservoir" in SIV-infected non-human primates treated with antiviral drugs, researchers have concluded.

16 Mar 2020

Exploring the biological link between reactivated HSV and neurological disease

Without even knowing it, most of us carry around latent Herpes Simplex Virus in our nervous system- a simple result of being born and living together with others carrying the virus.

10 Mar 2020

Individual responsibility to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is equally vital as government action

How individuals respond to government advice on preventing the spread of COVID-19 will be at least as important, if not more important, than government action, according to a new commentary from researchers at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London in the UK, and Utrecht University and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands.

7 Mar 2020

Drug for Ebola and MERS effective against COVID-19

A new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry has revealed that drug Remdesivir could be useful in treating the deadly COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus that is infecting tens of thousands of people across the world.

1 Mar 2020

Coronavirus outbreak is a stark reminder of ongoing challenge of emerging infectious pathogens

The emergence and rapid increase in cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus, pose complex challenges to the global public health, research and medical communities, write federal scientists from NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

28 Feb 2020

Researchers show how investigational antiviral drug stops coronavirus

A team of academic and industry researchers is reporting new findings about how exactly an investigational antiviral drug stops coronaviruses.

28 Feb 2020

New compounds may help stop the spread of the coronavirus

Amid the global health crisis of the coronavirus (COVID-19), scientists from around the world are racing to find a treatment to stop the deadly virus. The sudden acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across 46 countries, infecting more than 82,000 and killing more than 2,800 people.

26 Feb 2020

Columbia teams receive $2.1 million grant to find potential antiviral drugs for 2019-nCoV

Four research teams at Columbia University will share a $2.1 million grant to mount an aggressive effort to identify potential antiviral drugs and antibodies for use against the new coronavirus, 2019-nCoV.

20 Feb 2020

MGH researchers uncover potential antiviral drug target for treating infectious diseases

As the coronavirus outbreak shows, viruses are a constant threat to humanity. Vaccines are regularly developed and deployed against specific viruses, but that process takes a lot of time, doesn't help everyone who needs protection, and still leaves people exposed to new outbreaks and new viruses.

11 Feb 2020

CSU researchers uncover new information on replication of viruses

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Colorado State University has used computational chemistry, biochemistry and virology to uncover new information on how viruses such as West Nile, dengue and Zika replicate.

9 Feb 2020

Experimental therapies offer patients a greater chance of surviving Ebola virus disease

The investigational therapeutics mAb114 and REGN-EB3 offer patients a greater chance of surviving Ebola virus disease compared to the investigational treatment ZMapp, according to published results from a clinical trial conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

2 Dec 2019

New antiviral drug drives treatment resistance in influenza viruses

On January 31, 2019, an 11-year old boy in Japan went to a medical clinic with a fever. The providers there diagnosed him with influenza, a strain called H3N2, and sent him home with a new medication called baloxavir.

25 Nov 2019

Eastern equine encephalitis virus poses emergent threat in the U.S.

Although eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a mosquito-borne illness, has existed for centuries, 2019 has been a particularly deadly year for the disease in the United States.

21 Nov 2019

Scientists discover cell protein crucial in preventing viral replication

A research team has discovered a protein without which cells infected by viruses cannot trigger an immune response, leading to 100% mortality with even non-disease-producing strains. The discovery of the new Z-DNA binding protein, or ZBP1, was reported in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. It could help develop new treatment methods for viruses that target the nervous system such as the Zika or West Nile Encephalitis virus.

6 Nov 2019

Novel antibodies could provide a universal flu vaccine

Now, a new study published in the journal Science on October 25, 2019, reports on a set of three novel antibodies that bind to another type of viral cell surface antigen called neuraminidase (NA) that is necessary for viral replication.

28 Oct 2019

Study provides new insights on how influenza virus achieves efficient viral RNA replication

New insights on how subunits of the influenza virus polymerase co-evolve to ensure efficient viral RNA replication are provided by a study published October 3 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Nadia Naffakh of the Institut Pasteur, and colleagues. As the authors note, the findings could lead to novel strategies for antiviral drug development.

From PLOS ONE 27 Sep 2019

Herpes treatment greatly improved by adding charcoal

A novel charcoal-based drug-delivery system to treat herpes infections topically shows greatly improved efficacy over conventional treatment. Here, the medication called acyclovir, commonly used for herpes infection, was combined with activated carbon particles.

15 Aug 2019