The University of Hong Kong has designed a gene against influenza virus that can effectively prevent and treat the flu.

The University of Hong Kong announced that its microbiology experts have used viral genes and proteins to develop drugs that effectively inhibit influenza virus. According to reports, the research team spent more than three years to design influenza DIG3 (defective interference gene), which can effectively inhibit the growth of influenza virus in cells, and is not easy to produce drug resistance. In addition, the research team designed a new protein called TAT-P1 as a gene carrier, which can not only introduce DIG3 into the cell to inhibit the growth of the virus, but also inhibit the virus replication by inhibiting the acidification of the cell endosomes, and exert a dual antiviral effect.

The University of Hong Kong has designed a gene against influenza virus that can effectively prevent and treat the flu.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong found that injecting DIG3/TAT-P1 into the respiratory tract of mice one or two days before the laboratory mice were infected with H1N1 human influenza virus or H7N7 avian influenza virus or 6 hours after infection, it could effectively improve the survival rate of mice. Inhibits the growth of the virus in the lungs of mice. This shows that DIG3/TAT-P1 can effectively prevent and treat influenza.



Yuan Guoyong, a professor of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong Medical School, said at the press conference that the researchers used the virus gene and protein method to treat the flu. It is a complex protein that brings some viral genes into the cell and interferes with the virus replication in the whole cell. process. Yuan Guoyong believes that the results of this study provide important new methods and scientific basis for the treatment of influenza and other viral infections in the future. The research results have been published in the latest issue of the world-renowned multidisciplinary journal Nature News.