Flu cure on the horizon?

Researchers have identified an antibody that not only prevents test animals from contracting the influenza virus, but also cures already infected rodents. [Nature]

By examining the flu virus in its crystalline, or 3-D form, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute and Sea Lane Biotechnologies were able to identify how the CO5 antibody grabs hold of a particular structure on the virus – a structure the virus uses to latch onto its victim’s cells.

Researchers found if they gave mice C05 it prevented them from getting the flu. In addition, mice that had been exposed to the deadly flu were cured 100 percent of the time.