The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7336 p171
12 February 2005

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New technique to overcome antiviral drug resistance

Antiviral drug resistance could be eliminated by the development of therapies targeting host signalling pathways instead of the virus itself.

US researchers have found that it is possible to inhibit viral activity by blocking the signalling pathway that allows a virus to replicate.Monkey kidney cells were infected with a mouse model of the smallpox virus. Earlier work had shown that a protein produced by the smallpox virus, called smallpox growth factor, attaches to a cell membrane receptor erb-B1, allowing the virus to replicate.

An experimental drug, CL10033, was added to the infected kidney cells and was found to halt the replication of virus particles. CL-10033 is known to interfere with erb-B1 function and is being developed by Pfizer as a potential anti-cancer treatment (Journal of Clinical Investigation 2005;115:379).