Bird Flu: Science and Policy

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Breakthrough May Mean End to Flu Misery for Millions, Says Scientist

By Chris Benfield
04 October 2006

Science may have come up with a way to stop flu.

Warwick University professor Nigel Dimmock has spent 20 years looking for a general antidote to flu viruses and says he is now ready to make one on a large scale.

He is sure it would work against H5N1 – the new strain of bird flu which has been causing worldwide concern – and its variants.

And he is ready to start trials on humans, farm chickens and other animals governments and businesses might want to protect.

The university is launching a company in which it and Prof Dimmock have a stake, ViraBiotech, to raise money for trials and preparations for manufacture.

In theory, a human flu-preventer based on the Warwick discoveries could be ready in three years.

It would not wipe out flu viruses, but it could stop the epidemics which disrupt economies and cost lives when a virus mutates and spreads suddenly.

It could also prevent run-of-the-mill misery and cost arising from the 144 viruses already established in humans and animals such as pigs, poultry and horses.

Prof Dimmock's method promises to work against all viruses in the Influenza A category – the family which causes most trouble – and it might also work against some Influenza B.

It involves "protective viruses" – incomplete imitations of a full flu virus, which occur naturally along with the viruses they mimic.
Nobody knows what they are for, in evolutionary terms, but one theory is that, by competing for resources, they stop the damaging virus from killing its host too quickly.

Prof Dimmock, 66, is an expert on what happens when a protective virus gets into a host before the real thing.

On its own, it cannot reproduce, because there is a bit missing from one of its strands of RNA, the genetic material which carries the codes for building cells.

When a real virus arrives, they team up and both reproduce, but the dummy virus works faster, because it is smaller. It swamps the "nasty" version, so the body can develop antibodies before damage is done.

Prof Dimmock has seen the process in laboratory cultures, mice and ferrets. A dose is effective for six weeks and should cost no more than existing vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

He now has a protective virus from the Influenza A family which he can reproduce consistently and check for quality. But he stresses that genetic modification is not involved.

"It is a naturally occurring product," he said yesterday.

The system could lead to similar medicines against colds, hepatitis and other viral illnesses.

An independent expert, John Oxford, head of virology at three London hospitals, said the idea had "huge potential".
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