Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 443, 37-38 (7 September 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature05003; Published online 16 August 2006
Open Innovation Challenges
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Post Doctoral Positions
- Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)
- Lecce Italy
Senior Research Fellow - Atlantic Ocean Circulation and Climate
- University of Southampton
- Southampton / Hampshire United Kingdom
Structural biology: Antiviral drugs fit for a purpose
Ming Luo1
Abstract
Did drug researchers have a lucky break when they developed antiviral drugs for influenza? Crystal structures of enzymes from the H5N1 virus suggest that they did, and provide avenues for further exploration.
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) have been stockpiled by several nations to counter the threat of a flu pandemic, should the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 develop into a human strain. These drugs are inhibitors of an enzyme known as neuraminidase, which is found on the surface of the flu virus.
- Ming Luo is in the Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham, 1025 18th Street South, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA.
Email: mingluo@uab.edu
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Extinct 1918 virus comes aliveNature Medicine News and Views (01 Nov 2005)
New clues to the emergence of flu pandemicsNature Medicine News and Views (01 Oct 1998)
RESEARCH
The structure of H5N1 avian influenza neuraminidase suggests new opportunities for drug designNature Article (07 Sep 2006)
Influenza drug could abort a pandemicNature Correspondence (14 Apr 2005)
See all 11 matches for Research