A study by Dr. Maziar Divangahi revealed that a drug that inhibits PGE2 increases survival of mice infected with H1N1 flu virus. This finding paves the way for urgently needed novel therapies that may be effective against the flu and other viral infections.
“Drugs that specifically target PGE2 pathways have already been developed and tested in animals, so our results have excellent potential for clinical translation, not only for the treatment of influenza, but other viral respiratory infections that interact with similar host immune pathways”.
– Maziar Divangahi
Read the full publication here:
Targeted prostaglandin E2 inhibition enhances antiviral immunity through induction of type I interferon and apoptosis in macrophages. Coulombe F, Jaworska J, Verway M, Tzelepis F, Massoud A, Gillard J, Wong G, Kobinger G, Xing Z, Couture C, Joubert P, Fritz JH, Powell WS, Divangahi M. Immunity. 2014 Apr 17;40(4):554-68. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2014.02.013. Epub 2014 Apr 10. PMID: 24726877
View articles and interviews about this research:
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- Researchers find that influenza has an Achilles’ heel. Posted by Cell Press. Apr 10, 2014.
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