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FDA Approves First New Flu Drug In 20 Years (popsci.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Popular Science: The Food & Drug Administration just announced that they had approved the aptly-named Xofluza, the first new antiviral drug in two decades, to help alleviate the symptoms of a flu infection. The reason Xofluza got a priority review from the FDA is that it works through a different mechanism than Tamiflu. Both are antivirals, meaning they prevent the replication of the virus, but they work at different stages in that process. First, a quick primer on how viruses infect you: a virus is basically a packet of genetic material that injects itself into a cell and hijacks the cell's normal replication machinery, forcing it to produce millions of copies of the virus. A protein called viral neuraminidase allows those copies to exit the cell and go infect new parts of your body. Most of our effective antivirals are neuraminidase inhibitors -- the virus can still replicate, but it's prevented from escaping.
Xofluza works by preventing the viral replication in the first place. It blocks viral polymerase, an enzyme that helps make copies of the invading genetic material. This doesn't necessarily make it better or more effective -- the FDA notes that early trials suggest it's about as effective as Tamiflu -- but as the FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pointed out in a press release, "Having more treatment options that work in different ways to attack the virus is important because flu viruses can become resistant to antiviral drugs."
Xofluza works by preventing the viral replication in the first place. It blocks viral polymerase, an enzyme that helps make copies of the invading genetic material. This doesn't necessarily make it better or more effective -- the FDA notes that early trials suggest it's about as effective as Tamiflu -- but as the FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pointed out in a press release, "Having more treatment options that work in different ways to attack the virus is important because flu viruses can become resistant to antiviral drugs."
Another way to catch autism.
It's been 20 years already? Goodness, how time flu...
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There is another advantage of having drugs that work on different phases of the pathological process. It is that they can often show synergism when taken together, and such a combination has the potential to become the most effective treatment.
Low hanging fruit, I know...
1) no one will be able to afford it
2) in this age of social media vs facts, the anti-vaxers (or some other loud mouth ignorant group) will convince the majority its evil.
There have been several high profile security bugs on Linux in the past weeks.
Want to know a secret? It's diet 7-up, the famous long-time white people cure.
Why not both? Wouldnt taking both really inhibit the spread of a virus? It cant copy, and if it did it couldnâ(TM)t escape, and even if it did those shouldnt be able to replicate and the immune system will have some fun with them
As the summary says, that might be the best treatment. One reason NOT to do that is that the flu virus changes every year, becoming reistant to the anti-bodies that worked against last year's flu. If you routinely give both drugs, it's likely the fluvirus will adapt to be resistant to both. In some ways, it's better to keep one in reserve as a "secret weapon" that the virus doesn't know about, and only pull it out when needed. "When needed" might be vulnerable people (old, babies, aids patients) and/or when Tamiflu isn't working.
A Quick Public Health Alert:
Today, more people are dying from antibiotic resistant bacteria than they are from HIV/AIDS. Our abuse of antibiotics has caught up with us. This could very well turn into a lethal pandemic. A major reason our society abuses antibiotics is the meat industry: the constant administration of antibiotics to livestock results in animals twice the mass. Thus, the meat industry utilizes actual TONS of antibiotics yearly to double their product.
The synopsis mentioned: the FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pointed out in a press release, "Having more treatment options that work in different ways to attack the virus is important because flu viruses can become resistant to antiviral drugs."
What should also have been included in the synopsis is why it's important to have more than one antiviral. There is of course the obvious "more tools the better", but the real reason is that when targeting microbes it's important to ALWAYS attack with at least two weapons at the same time so as to ensure we aren't merely breeding resistant mutants. If only one antimicrobial is utilized, there is a very good chance that every other bacteria is wiped out except the few cells that have a mutated resistant gene, leaving that cell little competition to contend with growth-wise, and thus resulting in a culmination of resistant microbes. If two antimicrobials are utilized, it is MUCH less likely that there are two microbes that have developed resistance to both weapons simultaneously, and thus we are ensuring none survive.
This is why doctors should ALWAYS prescribe at least two antimicrobial agents at a time.
If you do not follow your doctors recommendations for antimicrobial use, you are likely breeding a new form of drug-resistant microbe inside of you.
In addition, many bacteria have the ability to directly share genes among each other, even between entirely different species of bacteria, via a process called conjugation, in which they directly transfer a gene or set of genes via a microtubule between eachother.
Get adequate vitamin D (which the RDA is not) and you'll greatly reduce the risk of getting any variety of flu.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
When you say it out loud, it sounds like you're sneezing. Should boost sales.
This snake oil won't prevent any flu, neither does 'Tamiflu'.
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