Designer Protein Halts Influenza Virus From Infecting Cells

In a preclinical study, researchers prevented influenza infection using a designer protein. The protein stopped the influenza virus from infecting cells in culture and protected mice after being exposed to heavy doses of the virus.¹

While, the investigators noted that the designed protein is unlikely to become a medicine itself, they did note that the new designer protein could serve as the basis for a cheap diagnostic for detecting influenza and possibly effective medications.²

References

1. Strauch EM, Bernard SM, La D, et al. Computational design of trimeric influenza-neutralizing proteins targeting the hemagglutinin receptor binding site [published online June 12, 2017]. Nat Biotechnol. doi: 10.1038/nbt.3907
2. Service R. Designer protein halts flu [news release]. American Association for the Advancement of Science. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/designer-protein-halts-flu. Published June 12, 2017. Accessed June 23, 2017.