Pamidronate drugs treat dangerous flu

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have discovered that a drug for bone disease can become a ' super weapon ' to kill dangerous flu.

This finding was found through testing of drugs on ' humanized mice ' (human immune mice), the first such test in the world. Pamidronate has been used for a long time to treat osteoporosis and osteitis (Paget).

Experiments on ' humanized mice ' show that this drug helps strengthen the immune system, killing cells infected with H1N1 and H5N1 virus.

Malik Peiris, a professor of microbiology at Hong Kong University, said: "This treatment uses a completely different strategy than conventional antiviral drugs." This is a new application for an old drug.

Pamidronate medicine. (Photo: Apppharma)

In fact, the method of ' humanized mouse ' is very complex, developed in 2009 by Tu Wenwei, also a professor at Hong Kong University. The first is ' anesthesia ' of mouse genes, making them without an immune system until human or lymphocyte cells are introduced into rat blood .

The advantage of this approach is that researchers may soon confirm whether the treatment trial is effective for people. Thus, it is possible to cut the time of 4-5 years for drug development and at the same time it may not need to be tested on primates.

According to the results of the University of Hong Kong team, this is the first time in the world to test drugs or vaccines by the method of " humanized mice ." Specifically, the 9/10 ' humanized mice ' taking Pamidronate had overcome the H5N1 infection. Meanwhile, this rate in ' anthropomorphic mice ' without medication is only 1/10.

The greatest hope from this study is that in the event of a pandemic with a dangerous new strain of influenza (which can spread in less than 4 months), Pamidronate can be used immediately instead of vaccine, usually Need 6-8 months to produce.

This is also good news when most strains of H1N1 are resistant to current drugs like Tamiful, which works to prevent viruses from moving between cells. Pamidrone enhances the immune system, helping to completely treat infected cells that reduce the risk of viral mutations.

With Pamidronate, which has been researched and used for more than 20 years, researchers believe it will be cheap to treat flu and quickly pass the test phase. However, it will still take 2-6 years before the drug becomes an effective treatment for flu.