Hess speaks with WVII about flu research
WVII (Channel 7) spoke with Sam Hess, a professor of physics at the University of Maine, about his research on new ways to combat the influenza virus. “We’re trying to find a way to attack the virus that doesn’t depend on those mutations that happen from year to year,” Hess said. His team discovered a cell lipid that interacts with a surface protein on cells, a connection that could lead to new therapies for the infection, WVII reported. “If we do find a way to block the interaction with a drug, that the virus can’t mutate out of it because it’s a part of the virus that’s not changeable, and if the drug works, then the virus dies. If the virus tries to mutate out of it, the virus may die on its own,” said Hess, who noted the goal is to have a treatment that always works as a backup, but that the vaccine would still be a good idea in the long run to prevent people from becoming ill in the first place. “But this would be if your vaccine didn’t work, you’d have something to stop people from getting so sick,” he said.