U.S. Biotech Licenses Hong Kong University Flu Research

Influenza ultrastructure illustration (Dan Higgins, CDC)

Alios BioPharma in South San Francisco and University of Hong Kong agreed to a licensing agreement for the university’s research findings that target influenza viruses. The agreement, officially with the university’s technology transfer company, will be used to advance the company’s R&D and commercialization of medicines to treat influenza infection.

The company also agreed to sponsor research by the University of Hong Kong’s professor of microbiology Richard Kao. Kao’s research focuses on the application of chemical genetics in infectious diseases. His work on the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus established the first model of chemical genetics in virology and showed that approach could probe many targets of a pathogenic virus.

In more recent work, Kao applied the chemical genetics model to the influenza A virus. This research led to the discovery of a nucleoprotein target for the disease and the compound nucleozin as a antagonist of the nucleoprotein. Nucleozin pulls together nucleoproteins from the flu virus, preventing them from infecting a healthy cell’s nucleus.

Annual flu epidemics, according to the World Health Organization, affect 5 to 15 percent of the population, usually with upper respiratory tract infections. Hospitalization and deaths mainly occur in high-risk groups, such as the elderly and chronically ill. The disease spreads rapidly worldwide, burdening hospitals and reducing economic productivity. In the U.S., the economic toll is estimated at $71 to $167 billion per year.

Read more: New Technology Found to Treat Broad Range of Viruses

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