In The Field

Drug resistance doesn’t always come from drugs

Influenza ‘accidentally’ hit on drug resistance through natural evolution.

Influenza resistance to a powerful group of antiviral drugs, the adamantane family, has worryingly jumped from 2% to 90% in recent years around the world. This dramatic shift was initially attributed to drug selection pressure: throwing adamantane drugs at viruses should select for influenza strains that evade those drugs. But a new study hints that this isn’t the cause of the increased resistance; instead it seems viruses developed the resistance on their own accord.

Read the story here.

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