Countdown to a Cure for the Common Cold
"New Drug Cures Multiple Viruses in Human Cells: Single treatment can kill 15 virus types in 11 mammals, study shows" by Christine Dell'Amore in National Geographic News (August 22, 2011).
The new drug is called DRACO. Instead of being tailored to a single virus, as all current anti-virals are, it works on almost any virus by attacking the generic way viruses replicate inside cells, recognizing the alien long strands of RNA and ordering the infected cells to self-destruct. This could, in time, be as big for treating viruses as penicillin was for bacteria. DRACO apparently doesn't work on retro-viruses, but now that the approach has been pioneered, surely people will begin researching how to turn it on them, too.
The new drug is called DRACO. Instead of being tailored to a single virus, as all current anti-virals are, it works on almost any virus by attacking the generic way viruses replicate inside cells, recognizing the alien long strands of RNA and ordering the infected cells to self-destruct. This could, in time, be as big for treating viruses as penicillin was for bacteria. DRACO apparently doesn't work on retro-viruses, but now that the approach has been pioneered, surely people will begin researching how to turn it on them, too.