SYDNEY, July 29 (Xinhua) -- An unexpected observation during unrelated research has led scientists in Australia and Finland to identify a potential antiviral strategy that could lead to new treatments for deadly infectious diseases or viral infections caused by Ebola and hantavirus.
Lead researcher Merja Joensuu of Australia's University of Queensland stated in a press release on Wednesday that the discovery originated while her team was investigating brain processes and observed a disruption in a pathway that numerous human viruses rely on to spread between cells.
Researchers identified a compound, currently being trialed as a cancer treatment, which inhibits the human enzyme N-myristoyltransferase 1 (NMT1) that helps direct where proteins are located and how they function within human cells.
Because viruses "hijack human cells" to reproduce, blocking NMT1 caused newly formed viruses "to be assembled incorrectly," reducing their ability to infect, said Professor Giuseppe Balistreri from the University of Helsinki in Finland, who co-led the study published in Nature Communications.
"The virus doesn't know this and keeps making and releasing less-effective versions of itself, which would give the immune system time to clean up the infection," Balistreri said.
Laboratory tests in cell cultures showed infection levels fell by about 50 percent after one day and by up to 90 percent after two days against a range of viruses. ■
