Finding a Pathway for Flu Drugs

This movie, derived from molecular dynamics simulations, depicts the antiviral drug Tamiflu (shown in the center of the screen in blue, white, and pink) traveling along a binding pathway on neuraminidase (larger red, white, and blue mass), a protein responsible for replication of the flu virus. Tamiflu must avoid mutations along the pathway, or find a new binding pathway, on the protein to be effective. Understanding how mutations block drug paths can potentially lead to better drugs for influenza, avian, and swine flus. For more detail, see this site: www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/influenza/ Related paper: Ly Le, Eric H. Lee, David J. Hardy, Thanh N. Truong, and Klaus Schulten. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that electrostatic funnel directs binding of Tamiflu to influenza N1 neuraminidases. PLoS Comput. Biol., 2010. In press. Link to paper: www.ks.uiuc.edu/Publications/Papers/paper.cgi?tbco…

• #
• #flu
• #tamiflu
• #neuraminidase
• #mutations
• #protein
• #virus
• #flu
• #influenza
• #avian_flu
• #swine_flu