School of Medicine scientists are investigating a new way to fight the flu.
Funding has been received largely through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to establish a drug discovery center that will look for compounds that enhance the body's natural virus-killing mechanisms to overcome the flu.
Each year, government agencies work with scientists to develop new flu vaccines to block large-scale flu outbreaks. The vaccines have to be modified yearly because flu viruses constantly change their basic components so the body's immune system can't recognize them.
But the researchers, headed by Michael J. Holtzman, M.D., believe they can identify drugs that enhance the body's resistance to a large range of respiratory viruses. That means these drugs could prevent or treat many different seasonal flu viruses and the 2009 H1N1 flu virus as well as the common cold and other respiratory viruses.
The ARRA provided nearly $2.5 million through the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases to support this research.
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