据香港媒体报道，香港大学与加拿大专家合作，找到一种化合物，能对付已产生抗药力的禽流感病毒和人类新型流感病毒。
这项研究由香港大学微生物学家高一村（Richard Kao）率领，有关论文刊登于最新一期的《自然―生物技术》期刊。
他们发现，一种名为nucleozin的化合物，能阻止H5N1禽流感病毒和人类季节性流感病毒复制繁殖，相信可以广泛用于发展抗流感药物。
高一村说，“我们现在找到全新的武器，与那些已产生抗药力的流感病毒战斗。”
他们指，美国在2008-2009年流感季节流传的H1N1新型流感病毒，几乎全都已对“特敏福”产生抗药能力。
高一村说，他们从5万多种化合物当中，找出nucleozin，发现它能够令老鼠身上的H5N1病毒停止复制繁殖。此外，它也对H1N1、H3N2和H5N1病毒有效。
原文出处：
Nature Biotechnology doi:10.1038/nbt.1638
Identification of influenza A nucleoprotein as an antiviral target
Richard Y Kao,Dan Yang,Lai-Shan Lau,Wayne H W Tsui,Lihong Hu,Jun Dai,Mei-Po Chan,Che-Man Chan,Pui Wang,Bo-Jian Zheng,Jian Sun,Jian-Dong Huang,Jason Madar,Guanhua Chen,Honglin Chen,Yi Guan" Kwok-Yung Yuen
Influenza A remains a significant public health challenge because of the emergence of antigenically shifted or highly virulent strains1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Antiviral resistance to available drugs such as adamantanes or neuraminidase inhibitors has appeared rapidly6, 7, 8, 9, creating a need for new antiviral targets and new drugs for influenza virus infections. Using forward chemical genetics, we have identified influenza A nucleoprotein (NP) as a druggable target and found a small-molecule compound, nucleozin, that triggers the aggregation of NP and inhibits its nuclear accumulation. Nucleozin impeded influenza A virus replication in vitro with a nanomolar median effective concentration (EC50) and protected mice challenged with lethal doses of avian influenza A H5N1. Our results demonstrate that viral NP is a valid target for the development of small-molecule therapies.
