Soon, Influenza Could be Cured Without the Need of a Flu Shot

Is it time to say good bye to the flu shot? Researchers have now found a way of increasing the level of a key protein in the human body that could end the flu virus. Jacob Yount of the Ohio State University said, "The flu vaccine needed to change every year because the virus was constantly mutating. We have been targeting a more fundamental process that was not specific to any particular strain of the virus. Our research showed that altering the role of one protein could stop the virus in its tracks."

The research team began using experimental drugs to test this flu prevention strategy in mice. The method involves raising the level of a protein in body that is known to be effective against all strains of influenza ever tested. The trick for infection prevention, however, is boosting that protein's level in cells before the flu virus shows up.

The scientists discovered that doing it involves suppressing the function of another protein. The protein effective against flu is called IFITM3, (pronounced I-fit-M-3, for interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3). Interferon has the role of telling an enzyme that degrades IFITM3 to hold off on that job so the IFITM3 level can stay high and fend off a flu attack. This enzyme, also a protein, proved to be the silver bullet in the researcher's work on flu prevention. The enzyme is called NEDD4 (pronounced Ned-4), and it degrades IFITM3 by attaching a small chain of molecules to it, a common process of protein clearing called ubiquitination. Yount said, "We figured out a way to induce just this single interferon response, the most important thing interferon does for flu."

The study is published in PLOS Pathogens.

Source-ANI