Probable influenza cure

The Daily Mail (UK Newspaper) today reports that a joint venture between British biotech firm ACAMBIS and Belgian company FLANDERS INSTITUTE FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY are co-operating on a joint venture to produce a CURE for the flu. All types of Flu. Avian H5N1 is mentioned in the press release linked below.

Incredible.

Here are the links...

www.vib.be...

www.dailymail.co.uk...

It looks promising. If this should come to fruition then it must be regarded as one of the greatest examples of medical technology ever. Millions have died due to influenza.

They are predicting the usual five-year lead time to clinical trials etc.

Vaccines force viruses to change direction, and mutate along new pathways. Unfortunately.

There is no guarantee that the M2 protein will not mutate in the future - meaning the jab will have to be regularly reformulated cautions Dr Ron Cutler, an infectious diseases expert from the University of East London.

More to the scientific point:

Medications that target proteins cause the targeted proteins to misfold, and create new protein strains called prions. Which is exactly what most pharmaceuticals do.

Then the prions interfere with the microbes' gene expression, change its DNA, and create new microbial strains.

Depending on the protein, the prion also can infect other organisms' cells directly - like human cells - and then its a whole new mutation-and-evolution ballgame.