Scientists at the Dutch 'First Health Pharmaceuticals' company are very enthousiastic about the effectivity in tests of a substance developed by the company, which could combat multiple virusses succesfully, and without chance of developing resistant strains.
It almost sounds too good to be true. A new class of chemicals, developed in the Netherlands, seems to be able to eliminate the H.I.V virus, hepatitis, dengue fever, West Nile virus, and others.
"An astounding breakthrough", and "very effective", the developers call it themselves. Let's test it on live patients first, other researchers caution.
One of the substances, myseriously named (pending proper patenting) "substance 16d" does offer promising results when tested on laboratory-grown human cells, by Spanish and Italian researchers, who have tested the substance for review in the PNAS magazine.
In the first pilot of animal testing, there do not seem to be much side effects either.
"This does set high hopes", says Jan Willem Bakker, researcher at First Health Pharmaceuticals.
Arvind Patel, a virologist at Glasgow university, and not associated with the PNAS research, although he is a co-worker of the Spanish and Italian researchers of that review, agrees. "There still is a long way to go, but what we are seeing here, is very remarkable indeed. A very interesting substance".
Ever since the discovery of penicillin, there has been a broad-spectrum use medicine available against bacteria, but against virusses, we do not have such universally effective medicine yet. With 16d, and and newer variants which are already being tested, First Health Pharmaceuticals thinks they are getting close to finding such medicine.
The substance inhibits the functioning of body's own enzyme called DDX3, which is hijacked by a lot of virusses for reproduction.
In theory this could block the reproduction of every virus which uses DDX3; from herpes to hepatitis c, from noro- to West Nile virus, from zika to H.I.V.
Another big advantage, according to Bakker, is that because it is affecting a body's own enzym, it will be hard for a virus to adapt and develop resistance.
He compares it to a bar at closing time, where, instead of politely asking people to go home, which will always result in some folks still hanging at the bar, the tap is closed, and the stools and chairs removed.
The researchers think it is no problem for the human body itself to go with less functioning DDX3 for a while.
Bakker even thinks that it could defeat a dormant H.I.V. infection. The aids virus has the nasty habit to hide in tissues in a dormant state, to pop out of hiding and multiply at a later date. If this happens when DDX3 is being inhibited "there will be no new virus coming out of that cell, and the cell dies".
"Hopeful, but in a very early stage", says Guus Bol from the University of Utrecht. He is not involved with the 16d research, but has done a lot of research into the DDX3 enzyme. "The hypothesis that inhibiting DDX3 will stop the replication of multiple virusses, is a logical one. And it is very cool that they have managed to show the principle in vitro.
Yet, Both he, and Patel still see bumps on the road. The substance does not readily solve in water, and it concentrated itself in the test animal's fat tissue.
"That could be problematic", says Bol. "We will have to await the results of further animal testing", says Patel.
Bakker thinks ahead optimistically though. He points out that there's already next generation substances being tested which are 'even more effective, and even less toxic", and he expects to have come up with a solution to the solubility in water soon.
He thinks 'fast' virusses like ebola and dengue fever are good candidates for the first human testing pilots, because patients will only use the substance very briefly with those diseases.
Substances inhibiting DDX3 could also prove useful in treating cancer, according to First Health Pharmaceuticals. Particularily in some aggressive tumors, DDX3 is hyperactive. A lot of experts have suspected for a while now that targeting DDX3 could be a smart counter move in those cases.
"We really think tumors are addicted to DDX3", says Guus Bol, who promoted to his doctor's degree on the subject a few years ago.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/onderzoekers-nederlandse-stoffen-effectief-tegen-hiv-en-andere-virussen~a4289314/ (above text is just a translation from the article)
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