Magic bullet for all viruses? Not quite. A paper published in PNAS details how a consortium of researchers have discovered a compound that appears to target and inactivate enveloped viruses. Not naked viruses, just enveloped viruses. But the amazing aspect of this compound is it that it appears to inhibit the infectivity of ALL enveloped viruses. All of them.
These includes a few heavy hitters you may have heard of such as the Flu, Hepatitis C virus, yellow fever, Ebola and HIV. But the actual list of viruses the compound currently known as LJ001 can inhibit include entire families of viruses: filoviruses, poxviruses, arenaviruses, bunyaviruses, paramyxoviruses, flaviviruses, as well as Influenza A and HIV-1. All of them.
Currently our arsenal against viral infections is a small array of antiviral drugs that individually may target one virus (such as Tamiflu against the influenza virus) or specific family of viruses (acyclovir for herpesvirus family members). But that is it. A very meager weapons bank.So to have a molecule that can target ALL enveloped viruses is nothing short of breathtaking.
So, how does it work? Investigators stated that the compound changed the lipid envelope and prevented viral entry into the cell. But could LJ001 act on human lipid membranes as well? Yes, but according to Dr. Benhur Lee in a report published in EurekAlert:
At antiviral concentrations, any damage it does to the cell’s membrane can be repaired, while damage done to static viral envelopes, which have no inherent regenerative capacity, is permanent and irreversible.
So, the good news? If this compound is capable of delivering on its promises, we have just acquired potent new weapon in our fight against viral infections. The bad news? Still nothing to prevent the common cold (a naked virus).
The researchers involved in finding this molecule were from UCLA, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Cornell University, Harvard University as well as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.