An Antibody-Inspired Small Molecule Could Make For A Better Flu Treatment
To outsmart influenza, researchers are leveraging the biological information encoded in infection-fighting antibodies to design new drugs. One attempt neutralizes near-lethal levels of flu in mice.
Compared to most disease-causing viruses, influenza is a particularly hard nut to crack. A two-dose vaccine in childhood protects you from measles for life. Smallpox is similarly preventable with a single vaccine. But to evade the flu virus, we need a different vaccine each year which, even at its most effective, can fail to protect against all strains of the virus.
Why?
While the measles virus of your childhood is essentially identical to the strains circulating today, influenza is constantly changing. Its outer protein layer, which our immune system
