A newly-developed special macromolecule is promising to eliminate all viruses

The reason why the viruses are difficult to be killed is that they have no obvious features. Based on this, researchers used a special macromolecule to actively adsorb the active virus so that they are easier to be recognized and destroyed by the immune cells.

Finding a cure for the Ebola virus, Zika virus or even for the flu virus is a very difficult task because the similarity among different viruses is very low, and even one virus can mutate and change. This is why doctors would use a different vaccine every year. A group of researchers from IBM and Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology are trying to find similarities among all of the viruses. By using a method of finding similarities, they devised a macromolecule that has the potential to handle a variety of viruses in order to prevent these viruses to invade our body. The study was recently published in the journal Macromolecules.

In their study, DNA and RNA viruses are being ignored. Although it's easy to locate DNA and RNA, the success rate is not targeted high because the difference between DNA and RNA of viruses is relatively large and they are very prone to mutation.

The researchers turned their attention to the glycoproteins, to which all viruses are attached. The viruses complete all dirty work of infection and pathopoiesia through adhering to somatic cells. Based on this theory, the researchers created a macromolecule which was a molecule made up of smaller units. The key feature of this macromolecule plays important role in the fight against the viruses. Firstly, this macromolecule adsorbed the virus by static electricity. When the virus approached, the macromolecule adsorbed on virus body and made the virus not able to adsorb on health somatic cells. Then it neutralized the acidity of the virus and the virus was difficult to replicate.

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In addition, this macromolecule has another trump card that it contains a kind of sugar called mannose. This sugar is adsorbed on healthy immune cells and forces them to get closer to the virus, thus the virus infection cases are easier to be eliminated.

Some researchers conducted research on viruses including Ebola and dengue virus. They found that these high molecular were just working as they had imagined. This macromolecule adhered to the surface of the virus protein carbohydrates, eliminating the massive amount of virus. Then mannose adsorbed on the healthy immune cells further eliminated remaining virus, which successfully prevented the virus to invade somatic cells.

Although there are some problems to take the macromolecule as a disinfectant to prevent and treat viral infections in practical use, anyway, at least it gives us right direction in the treatment of a viral infection.

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