Turning Rapid Mutation Against Viruses
Rapid evolution could lead to "lethal mutagenesis" and kill off pesky viruses Viruses can rapidly evolve and adapt to the latest antiviral drugs in a never-ending war of survival. Yet some scientists have spent the past 10 years working on ways to turn that rapid mutation against the viruses. Carl Zimmer, a science writer with a special fondness for parasites, described the challenges facing those scientists in a recent New York Times story. Mutations represent genetic errors that mostly prove bad for viruses, but can also lead to beneficial traits such as resistance to a certain drug. Scientists hope to boost the number of mutations so that a fatal number stacks up. The number of defective offspring would eventually cause virus populations to essentially die out -- a concept known as "lethal mutagenesis." This has proven more difficult to put into practice, as evidenced by a decade's worth of studies. Drugs that can...