New Drug Might Kill All Viruses

Doctors may soon be able to prescribe a drug that kills all viruses, according to new research from MIT. DRACO is a novel broad-spectrum treatment that appears to cause virus-infected cells in the body to commit suicide, eventually killing (or at least controlling) the infection throughout the body.

A recent study found that DRACO effectively kills 15 different virus types in both human and animal cells, including polio, dengue fever, a stomach virus, various types of hemorrhagic fever (including the scary-deadly Ebola virus), the H1N1 "swine" flu virus, and even the common cold! According to Todd Rider, DRACO's inventor and a top researcher at MIT:

“In theory, it should work against all viruses."

Basically the new anti-viral drug works by telling an infected cell to kill itself before a virus can replicate inside of it. In effect it manipulates the cell's natural defense mechanisms in a way that wipes out a virus before it can produce many copies of itself.

The best news is that, according to experts, viruses may not be able to become resistant to the effects of DRACO the way they do to many other anti-viral compounds. There is simply no direct pathway to resistance because the drug really acts on the cell, not on the virus itself. Scientists are hoping DRACO will be the virus "cure-all" we've been waiting for for thousands of years!

Learn some mo': New drug could cure nearly any viral infection