Viral Vanquishers? New Drugs Could Destroy All Viruses

Viral Vanquishers? New Drugs Could Destroy All Viruses

We’ve had a reasonably firm handle on the spread of bacterial illnesses since the discovery of penicillin, but viral infections are another story. If you’ve ever visited a doctor for a cold that was making you miserable, you’ve no doubt heard the standard line about how medicine can’t do much about viruses. We might be able to lessen the symptoms, but that cold will just have to run its course. Likewise for more serious viral infections; there are antiviral drugs for certain viruses, but the viruses tend to evolve and mutate so quickly that the drugs don’t have a chance. But that could all change very soon. A group of researchers at Lincoln Laboratory’s Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group have invented an entirely new type of drug called DRACOs. DRACOs could be the answer to all viruses – not just specific infections, but every virus we know of now and every virus that might be discovered in the future.

The new drugs work by attacking infected cells rather than targeting the virus itself, which is how traditional antivirals work. When a virus infects cells and instructs them to replicate the virus, it leaves RNA markers behind. DRACOs target only the cells that are infected, giving them a self-destruct order that stops the virus in its tracks. The drugs never target healthy cells, only those already under attack, and since the target is our own cells the virus doesn’t have a chance to out-evolve the drugs. The development is huge – like world-changing huge. It could be the end of every virus, from the common cold to AIDS. Of course, significant testing is needed before the treatment can be used on humans, but initial tests on mice have proven extremely promising.

Designer Virus Infects Your Brain to Help You Lose Weight

If you want to shift some excess weight, your first instinct might be to reach for the carrot sticks or lace up your running shoes. That’s the old way to lose weight, though – and science has a much better idea: a designer virus. In studies at Johns Hopkins University, rats who were injected with a certain virus ate less and weighed less than rats in the control group. The virus inhibited the neuropeptide Y (NPY) protein in the brain, resulting in decreased hunger.

There were, however, some even more surprising effects of the virus. Rats who received the virus and subsequently ate huge amounts of high-calorie foods didn’t develop the expected white fat build-up; instead, they developed brown fat which is much easier for the body to burn off. The virus is a very, very long way off from being used on humans, but if it makes it to people one day we might be able to look forward to smaller appetites and a greater percentage of “healthy” fat on our bones.

Researchers Discover the First Known Virus That Preys on Other Viruses

Viruses infect a wide range of plants and animals, and a new study in Nature [subscription required] shows that they can even infect one another. If that seems surprising, no wonder: until a team of French researchers watched one virus invade another, hijacking its genetic machinery and making copies of its victim’s DNA, scientists didn’t even know this was possible [Wired].

The French team dubbed the virus’s virus Sputnik and called it a “virophage” to parallel “bacteriophage,” which is the name for a virus that infects bacteria [Science]. Sputnik is tiny, with only 18,000 genetic bases in its chromosome. Its victim, by contrast, is a large mamavirus that the scientists found in a Paris cooling tower, and contains about 1.2 million genetic bases. An infection by Sputnik sickens the mamavirus by interfering with its replication.

The discovery that even viruses can fall ill has reignited an old controversy—whether viruses are are actually alive or simply rogue bits of DNA that depend upon other organisms to reproduce. “There’s no doubt this is a living organism,” says Jean-Michel Claverie, a virologist at the the CNRS UPR laboratories in Marseilles, part of France’s basic-research agency. “The fact that it can get sick makes it more alive” [Nature].

And now that they know viruses can infect other viruses, the researchers say it could be possible to use virophages against the most harmful viruses, although they’re cautious about the idea. “It’s too early to say we could use Sputnik as a weapon against big viruses or to modify them,” says co-author Bernard La Scola, also at the University of the Mediterranean. “But phages are used to modify bacteria, so why not?” [New Scientist]