Computer chips of a type more commonly found in games consoles
have been used by scientists at the University of Bristol to
reveal how the flu virus resists anti-flu drugs such as Relenza
and Tamiflu. Professor Adrian Mulholland and Christopher Woods
from Bristol’s School of Chemistry , together with colleagues in
Thailand, used graphics processing units (GPUs) to simulate the
molecular processes that take place when these drugs are used to
treat the H1N1-2009 strain of influenza - commonly known as
’swine flu’. Their results, published today [29 May] in
Biochemistry, provide new insight that could lead to the
development of the next generation of antiviral treatments for
flu. H1N1-2009 is a new, highly adaptive virus derived from
different gene segments of swine, avian, and human influenza.†
Within a few months of its appearance in early 2009, the
H1N1-2009 strain caused the first flu pandemic of the 21st-
century. The antiviral drugs Relenza and Tamiflu, which target
the neuraminidase (NA) enzyme, successful