As another swine flu season looms, a university is working with cutting-edge technology to detect any changes in influenza viruses that might render drugs such as Tamiflu ineffective.
The technology in use at Canterbury University's internationally recognised Biomolecular Interaction Centre (BIC) may also help show what treatments may or may
not be effective against other illnesses.
The university was the first in the Southern Hemisphere to purchase a piece of equipment called a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) ProteOn XPR 36, which makes it all possible.
"All of the drugs that go into the body become interesting when they interact with other parts of the body," said BIC co-director, Professor Conan Fee. "So in principle we can put any of those drugs on to this system and then check for how well they interact with their targets."
The SPR machine allows university staff, and Environmental Science and Research (ESR), to research the effectiveness of anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu, which has been stockpiled for use against swine flu.
The machine worked by showing how molecules from different sources interacted, such as those from Tamiflu and those from an influenza strain, said Professor Fee.
"And we can then explore what happens when things mutate, because that is the most important thing about influenza, is that it keeps mutating and changing. That's why we keep having to do the seasonal vaccines and so on."
"And the greatest fear with something like swine flu was that it would mutate and become resistant to one of the anti-viral drugs."
