Just a short diary on some science news.
From Popular Science:
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe an early proof-of-concept study on a chemical they call LJ001. The chemical attacks the structure of viruses themselves, and may potentially cure a wide swath of disease ranging from influenza to AIDS to Ebola.
I have no experience in this field, but this sounds like a pretty big breakthrough. Apparently, this compound works by attacking the lipid envelopes of certain viruses. It also damages healthy cells, but unlike viruses, these have no trouble repairing themselves. Pop. Sci. sums it up nicely:
By attacking the structure of the viruses, not the replication, LJ001 may end up as the first drug in a new age of medicine.
This is still in a pretty early research stage, consisting of mouse studies and cell-culture work. Not really having any knowledge of the process, I have no idea how long it would take to get this chemical, or others like it, from the laboratory to the market, if that even happens. It is, however, still amazing stuff. Update, from G2geek in the comments:
First the chemical that works in-vitro ("petri dish cultures") has to be tested in-vivo (in live animals, e.g. mice). If it succeeds at that point, then it gets further developed toward the goal of human testing.
Human testing covers three phases: One, safety: does it have unintended effects that are so dangerous that it cannot be used at all? Two, effectiveness: does it do what it's supposed to do, in this case kill viruses sufficiently as to cure patients? Three, calibration of dosages to arrive at standard dose levels that can be produced for use by the public, e.g. a pediatric dose and an adult dose.
The whole process can take from 10 - 15 years, but FDA has procedures for fast-tracking drugs for emergency situations such as when dealing with novel viruses, pandemics, and national security issues such as bioterrorism risks. Since this has an obvious natsec implication against designer bioterrorist viruses, it will be fast-tracked. We might expect to see it become available in as few as five years.
Hopefully somebody with more knowledge in this field can weigh in? Update: See the comments for some interesting discussion and good explanations from knowledgeable users.
The work was done at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, UCLA, Harvard University, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and Cornell University.
Link to the story at Science Daily.