Cancer drug holds hope to cure flu virus

A CANCER drug has been found to speed up recovery from flu.

The experimental drug could offer hope to the tens of thousands admitted to hospital with the virus in England every year.

Flu turns infected lung cells into factories that churn out thousands of copies of the virus to spread the infection.

But the drug, called BEZ235, was found by US scientists to prevent this from happening.

Existing flu drugs such as Tamiflu attempt to tackle the virus, but the new treatment targets the human body and its response to the flu instead.

In mice, survival rates were boosted from 15 to 60% after they were given the drug, the study led by St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis found.

BEZ235 could block both glucose and glutamine from being employed in the body to replicate the virus.

The drug is hoped to be available within five years, Cell Reports says.

BEZ235 is currently being trialled as a cancer drug used to target solid tumours. Lead author Doctor Heather Smallwood from the University of Tennessee said: “We are very excited about this as we appear to have found a vulnerability in flu which we can exploit.” –Daily Mail