While studying how brain cells work, Dr. Merja Joensuu noticed something strange happening in one of the pathways she was examining. It turned out that same pathway is how many dangerous viruses spread from cell to cell inside the body. That unexpected observation, made in a lab at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, could lead to an entirely new way of treating diseases like COVID-19, pneumonia in young children, Ebola, and other viral infections.
Viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They must hijack human cells and force those cells to make copies of the virus. Dr. Joensuu realized that if she could disrupt the pathway cells use to assemble new viruses, the viruses would come out malformed and ineffective. "That was the lightbulb moment," she said. "We realized that if we interfere with that pathway, we might be able to stop viruses from forming properly."
Working with Professor Giuseppe Balistreri from the University of Helsinki, Dr. Joensuu searched for a compound that could block this pathway. They found one that was already being tested as a cancer treatment. The target is a human enzyme called N-myristoyltransferase 1, or NMT1, which helps direct where proteins go inside cells and how they work. By disrupting NMT1, the researchers could cause new viruses to be assembled incorrectly.
In laboratory tests on cell cultures, the results were striking. Infection levels dropped by about half after just one day, and by as much as 90 percent after two days. The researchers tested the compound against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), respiratory syncytial virus (a major cause of pneumonia in infants), and vesicular stomatitis virus, which normally affects cattle and horses but can occasionally infect humans.
"The reduction is quite striking," Dr. Joensuu said. She believes this strategy could also work against viruses with high death rates and long incubation periods, like Ebola and hantavirus. Because the drug targets human cells rather than the virus itself, there is less chance the virus will mutate and develop resistance to the treatment.
The team emphasized that the drug is still years away from being available to patients. It has not been approved for treating viral infections, and more research is needed to confirm it is safe and effective in animals and eventually humans. But Dr. Joensuu is optimistic about what comes next. She can already imagine the drug being delivered through something simple and familiar: a nasal spray or inhaler for people with respiratory infections.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.