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.