New anti-microbial 'paint' kills flu, bacteria

December A new "antimicrobial paint" developed at MIT can kill influenza viruses that land on surfaces coated with it, potentially offering a new weapon in the battle against a disease that kills hundreds of thousands a of people every year. Clearly, the new substance, could be applied to doorknobs or other surfaces where germs tend to accumulate, significantly aiding the fight against the spread of the flu.

"Because of the limited efficacies with existing (flu) vaccines and antivirals, there's room for other, complementary approaches," said Jianzhu Chen, MIT professor of biology and one of the authors of a report on the new material that appeared November 13 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a typical year, 200,000 people in the United States are hospitalized from influenza virus infection, and 36,000 of them die, according to the Centers for Disease Control. If an avian flu pandemic broke out, as many experts fear, the death toll could be in the millions.

Most fatal flu cases occur in the elderly or in people with weakened immune systems. Available flu vaccines are only 30 to 40 percent effective among those groups, and only 70 to 80 percent effective among healthy adults.

Influenza is spread when viruses released by an infected person accumulate on surfaces, where other people pick them up. Stopping the viruses before they infect people could prevent some flu cases, says Chen.

The new substance can do just that, by killing influenza viruses before they infect new hosts. The "antimicrobial paint," which can be sprayed or brushed onto surfaces, consists of spiky polymers that poke holes in the membranes that surround influenza viruses.

Influenza viruses exposed to the polymer coating were essentially wiped out. The researchers observed a more than 10,000-fold drop in the number of viruses on surfaces coated with the substance, according to Alexander Klibanov, MIT professor of chemistry and bioengineering and the senior author of the paper. Combating E. coli, too

The polymers are also effective against many types of bacteria, including human pathogens Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, deadly strains of which are often resistant to antibiotics. For example, S. aureus causes serious problems in hospitals, where it can spread among patients and health care workers.

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