New treatments for influenza
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New treatments for influenza BMC Medicine 2012, 10:104
doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-104
Sailen Barik ([email protected])
ISSN Article type
1741-7015 Review
Submission date
24 April 2012
Acceptance date
29 August 2012
Publication date
13 September 2012
Article URL
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/104
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© 2012 Barik ; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
New treatments for influenza
Sailen Barik1,2
1
Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease, Cleveland State University, 2351 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA 2
Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University, 2121
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA
Email address: SB: [email protected]
Abstract Influenza has a long history of causing morbidity and mortality in the human population through routine seasonal spread and global pandemics. The high mutation rate of the RNA genome of the influenza virus, combined with assortment of its multiple genomic segments, promote antigenic diversity and new subtypes, allowing the virus to evade vaccines and become resistant to antiviral drugs. There is thus a continuing need for new anti-influenza therapy using novel targets and creative strategies. In this review, we summarize prospective future therapeutic regimens based on recent molecular and genomic discoveries.
Keywords
Cathelicidin; defensin; influenza; hemagglutinin; neuraminidase; NSAID; oseltamivir; siRNA; zanamivir
Review Background Influenza, commonly known as 'flu', is a respiratory infection contracted by 5% to 50% of the US population annually, roughly 200,000 of whom are hospitalized and 25,000 die (with significant yearto-year variation) [1-4]. Clinically, influenza presents itself with high fever, chills, sore throat, headache, runny or stuffy nose, weakness, muscle pain and sometimes diarrhea (vomiting in children). Although more severe than common cold, influenza is generally a self-limiting disease in healthy adults that lasts about a week, but cough and lethargy may continue for some time. In the population, influenza follows the general pattern that now appears to characterize essentially all respiratory infections, in that it can be particularly hazardous to individuals with poor immunity such as children and the elderly, and those with pulmonary, cardiovascular or other complications. Pneumonia, either a direct result of the vir
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