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Monday, May 31, 2010

Reuters : Experts find compound to fight bird, seasonal flu

Via Reuters, good news for us mankind. We may be getting new fire power in our war against influenza :

" May 31 : Scientists have identified a chemical compound that can stop the H5N1 bird flu virus as well as seasonal human flu viruses from replicating.

Finding new flu drugs is essential as flu viruses mutate and are adept at evading the limited array of antiviral drugs.

In a paper published in Nature Biotechnology, scientists from Hong Kong and Canada said they had found a chemical "nucleozin", which fought off both seasonal flu viruses and the H5N1 in mice as well as in cell culture.

"We have now brand-new weapons to combat influenza virus resistant to ... (antiviral drugs like) oseltamivir and zanamivir," said microbiologist Richard Yao at the University of Hong Kong, who led the study."

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