LITTLE ROCK — Biochemistry researchers at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville are exploring ways to outsmart the ever mutating flu virus by using stimulus money from a two year grant.
Fayetteville campus officials announced the $854,803 grant from the National Institutes of Health on Monday.
The four UA scientists are studying the more vulnerable parts of influenza strains, with the ultimate goal of devisingnew vaccines, antiviral drugs, or both, said Suresh Kumar, a UA assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
The grant is an extra NIH award, coming as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Kumar said.
"It not only allows us to employ new people, but it leads to innovation," Kumar said. In all, the grant is expected to create seven to eight full-time jobs.
The seasonal flu kills about 36,000 Americans annually, according to estimates calculated this year by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The research is primarily directed at the common flu, but it has potential for understanding or developing vaccines against the H1N1 flu," Kumar said Monday.
He was referring to this year's swine flu pandemic, which emerged globally months ahead of America's regular flu season. The CDC later began referring to the swine flu as the "novel H1N1 virus," in part because the strain contains pig, avian and human genes.
Because the two-year grant period began July 1, the research won't address any flu of the current season.
The seasonal flu virus is "smart" in its ability to morph into new strains each season, the researchers said, and as a result only two FDA-approved antiviral drugs remain as effective treatments. Health officials also adapt the flu vaccine annually, in anticipation of the most prevalent strains that they believe will emerge.
Flu strains modify their exterior proteins so a host's body no longer recognizes them.
Rather than focus on these moving targets, the UA researchers will examine a different viral protein, called NS1. NS1 changes little over time, Kumar said, making it an attractive target.
It allows the flu virus to "hijack the host cell machinery" in order to make its own proteins. The protein also blocks the cell's natural immunity response in a group of proteins called interferons.
In order to stop NS1, researchers must figure out how it hijacks the host cells.
The grant will allow them to identify the host proteins that interact with NS1 and form chemical bonds. The scientists then will try to determine how NS1 recognizes the correct host proteins before it bonds with them.
Uncovering these mysteries will allow the scientists to find ways to foil NS1's work, Kumar said. The tools for this detective work include technologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and a technique developed by one UA team member, Yu-Chun Du, that uses mass spectrometry.
The second part of the grant project will involve studying the interferons, which are necessary for the body's natural defense system.
The Fayetteville campus will work with researchers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences on this.
The UAMS scientists have identified "mutant" forms of interferon that have "strong antiviral and anti-tumor" properties, UA-Fayetteville officials said.
The other UA-Fayetteville scientists working on the grant are Du, Robyn Goforth and Ralph Henry, Kumar's colleagues in the biological sciences. All four are part of the Center for Protein Structure and Function in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7, 12 on 09/22/2009