An experimental drug has treated guinea pigs infected with the virus of a fatal hemorrhagic fever, resulting in the hope of its use in a wide range of viral diseases, including influenza, hepatitis C, HIV, Ebola and others were claimed by U.S. researchers.
" this is a completely new strategy to create antiviral drugs," said dr. Philip Thorpe, professor of pharmacology at the University of Texas, whose research appeared in the journal Nature Medicine .
Thorpe explained that instead of attack the virus directly, bavituximab, manufactured by Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, takes advantage of a defense mechanism used by the virus to escape the immune system.
When cells are attacked by a virus, which causes the emergence of a fat molecule called phosphatidylserine, which is normally within the cell and emerge outside.
" is like wearing clothes the contrary," says Thorpe.
Bavituximab , a genetically engineered antibody, search and attaches itself to fat molecules, and signals in this way the immune system, so that may give rise to the attack.
"when injected into the bloodstream, bavituximab circulates through the body until it finds these fat molecules have emerged, and it binds to these "says Thorpe.
" in the case of viral infection, this link shows a red flag to the immune system, forcing the development of defensive white blood cells that attack infected cells [as shown] .
Thorpe points out that the antiviral drugs "conventional" try to exploit certain properties of the virus, but are frequently defeated by mutations in the virus themselves.
Taking aim at a point [the constant changes] of the infected cells of the host organism, bavituximab is probably less subject to lose effectiveness because of mutations of the virus.
In this study, Thorpe and colleagues evaluated a group of guinea pigs in an advanced state of infection with a type of virus Lassa fever, a disease that affects a part of West Africa.
half of the animals treated with single drug have been treated. In Guinea, where researchers have used the drug in combination with ribavirin (a drug that inhibits viral replication) survived 63% of the population.
Thorpe says that these results suggest that the drug may be effective [also] to other types of hemorrhagic viruses like Ebola and Marburg.
Furthermore, this emergence of fat molecules also occur in cells infected by several other viruses such as influenza, smallpox and rabies.
The Peregrine Pharmaceuticals is conducting Phase I trials on patients with hepatitis C and HIV, and more advanced studies (Phase II) on patients with cancer. Steven King, president and chief executive of Peregrine has made clear its belief that the drug "has tremendous potential." The research co-funded by the National Institutes of Health USA.
The news was originally reported by Gexgex on Lilanew .
on PubMed there is still no literature on the drug itself, but three articles on this particular of diseased cells to "turn coat", as the interviewee. On Clinicaltrials.gov there are some 'studies, six, of which only one HIV + patients, but not as such, but as with HCV, it is a phase I study to determine safety and tolerability in short, we are quite a few 'early, but the drug does not look like one, or at least the manufacturer seems to believe, as other studies are in oncology, and joined the gold standard of treatment ... This is the page on the manufacturer as Bavituximab Anti-Viral E this is a page on the mechanism of operation, including a long movie ...
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