Influenza Antiviral Drug Search
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本项目是 IBM 公司主持的 World Community Grid 项目的子项目。
项目状态和成果
If you have comments or questions about this project, please visit the Influenza Antiviral Drug Search forum. For specific questions about the project, please go to the Influenza Antiviral Drug Search FAQs.
任务
Influenza Antiviral Drug Search项目的任务是寻找能够阻止流感感染在体内传播的新药。这项研究将专门针对已产生耐药性的流感毒株以及正在出现的新毒株。确定最佳候选化合物将加速开发有助于管理季节性流感爆发、未来流感流行甚至流行病的治疗方法。
意义
全世界每年有数十万人死于流感感染。如果出现一种特别致命的毒株，并且很容易在人类之间传播，那么一场大流行病可能会导致数百万人死亡。流感病毒变异迅速，因此每年都会出现新的流感变种。流感疫苗旨在预测下一个流感季节可能流行的毒株，但往往会错过新进化的变种。虽然奥司他韦（商品名达菲）和扎那米韦（商品名称瑞伦扎）等药物有助于防止流感在体内传播，但它们并不是对所有类型的流感都有效，而且新的耐药性流感正在演变，无法用这些药物治疗。当耐药菌株出现时，设计疫苗的制造商可能无法足够快地做出反应，以防止疾病的大规模爆发。该项目将寻找有前景的新药线索，阻止流感病毒在体内的复制，有可能帮助对特定形式的流感没有免疫力的患者。广谱和特异性抗病毒药物的发现有望显著改善全球健康状况。
方法
One promising approach to combat these viruses and prevent them from causing disease is to develop new drugs that inhibit neuraminidase (N1, N2, etc), NS1 protein, hemagglutinin, and possibly other targets that influenza needs to spread in the body. Using the known chemical structures of these target molecules, the project will perform virtual chemistry experiments and determine which of millions of known compounds attach to these target molecules in a manner that can disable or inhibit them, thus potentially keeping the influenza virus from spreading in the body. These experiments are performed using a program called AutoDock, from the Scripps Research Institute. This software is used for several other projects on World Community Grid. These include FightAIDS@Home, Discovering Dengue Drugs - Together, and Help Fight Childhood Cancer projects. Once drug candidates are identified using World Community Grid, then additional laboratory work, testing and ultimately drug trials will be required. This will likely not lead to any immediate treatments for influenza during the current H1N1 outbreak. However, influenza viruses cause recurrent seasonal disease outbreaks and have the potential for evolving into dangerous forms. Thus, proceeding on this project at this time will give us a better chance to be prepared for more serious outbreaks in the future.
继续阅读
相关链接
- 官方网站上关于 Influenza Antiviral Drug Search 的介绍
- 本站论坛的 World Community Grid 项目讨论区