An Update on Kimer Med, Improving on the DRACO Antiviral Technology and Moving Towards the Clinic

The state of anti-viral therapies isn't that great, all things considered. Technology has not yet advanced to the point at which a viral infection can be simply shut down, as is the case for near all bacterial infections. The present anti-viral drugs are either vaccines (useful!) or merely shift the odds somewhat by interfering in some part of the viral life cycle, but nowhere near as effectively as desired. Many persistent viral infections are thought to contribute meaningfully to forms of age-related dysfunction, and there is too little that can be done about that at the present time. This landscape is one of the reasons why there was so much interest in our community in the double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizer (DRACO) technology, an approach to selectively killing cells in which viral replication is taking place. DRACO offered the promise of being broadly and rapidly effective for ending infection by many different viruses, and doing so with little adaptation of the core technology from virus to virus, a big improvement over the present state of the art. Initial results in animal studies looked good. As is all too often the case for promising technologies, however, the DRACO research program faltered in funding and ultimately halted. It took some time, and a number of failed fundraising efforts, for another group to emerge to pick up the flag and run with it. That group is Kimer Med, a New Zealand biotech startup. It seems they have made conside...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Longevity Industry Source Type: blogs