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Food Additive To Control H7N9 Virus
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Food additive as a clue to the drug discovery against the most dangerous avian flu virus H7N9

Could a food additive ever be an antiviral drug? The study published by the Assistant professor Michael Caffrey and his research team from the department of Biochemistry and molecular genetics, University of Illinois, Chicago quotes their discovery of the food preservative tert-butyl hydroquinone with the potential to block the most dangerous avian flu virus H7N9 from invading the normal cells.

The H7N9 (bird flu virus) virus came into the spotlight when there was a major outbreak of avian flu viral infection among human population noticed in China few months back with records of death of some of the infected persons. H7N9 is identified as a new viral strain belonging to the influenza virus A species and no drug is available to arrest its activity. Treating infected individuals with the anti viral drug Neuraminidase inhibitors at the early stage of infection is thought to be effective to an extent. The H7N9 viral infection is followed by fever and cough, difficulty in breathing and the severity of the infection is addressed by conditions like blood poisoning, organ dysfunction and cytokine storm. It sent a shock wave when human to human transmission of the virus was observed. With no available drug to treat this infection and the severity of the infection, this virus is really a deadly monster.

In general, these viral strains are categorized based on two different proteins present on its surface. These two proteins are hemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). H7N9 viral strain uses its hemagglutinin portion to enter the cells. This protein unit of the viral entity binds itself to the receptors on the cell surface and thus making the entry of the virus into the cell easier. Just arresting this particular action of hemagglutinin will be the key to block the virus from invading the cell.

The discovery by Caffrey and team is quite promising to develop an antiviral drug against this virus. The team conducted its study with the food preservative tert-butyl hydroquinone, a FDA approved compound. The already established ability of this preservative to block H3 viruses is the key factor that triggered the research team to study this compound against H7N9 virus. The scientists selected less harmful viral strain for their study and attached the hemagglutinin portion (of the H7N9 virus) to it and observed the effect of this virus on the human lung cells in the presence of the selected food preservative under laboratory conditions and thus found the ability of this food additive to attach itself to the special loop structure on the hemagglutinin portion of the virus thus preventing the virus from binding to the cell.

This discovery is novel and will enable the drug development against the flu virus but the dosage limit of the food preservative tert-butyl hydroquinone should be analysed.


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