BEIJING : Chinese and US research teams have jointly discovered two bacterial secreted proteins that can effectively inactivate a series of viruses, including the novel coronavirus, dengue and the HIV, according to a media report.
The result "provides a future avenue for the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs that might reduce the clinical burden caused by emerging viral diseases," according to a paper released on bioRxiv, the preprint server for biology, on May 22, state-run Global Times reported here on Tuesday.
As the development of virus-specific vaccines and antiviral drugs usually take a great deal of time, broad-spectrum antiviral drugs could be crucial to preventing the spread of new viral diseases in a timely manner,