The Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention said that it has discovered that an existing drug substance inhibits the replication of the H5N1 virus that causes the highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The Korea National Institute of Health under the KCDC has newly found through in-lab tests on mice that the drug substance mycophenolic mofetil represses the replication of the H5N1 influenza virus.

Mycophenolic mofetil is a US FDA-approved drug substance used to address rejection episodes in organ transplants and to treat various autoimmune diseases.

In addition, the mice’s cells infected with the H5N1 virus showed more stabilized autoimmune responses when injected with the drug substance, KNIH said.

It is the first time that scientists have established such a causal link between mycophenolic mofetil and the H5N1 virus, according to the KNIH. The findings were published in the scientific journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications this month.

Researchers at KNIH infected lab mice with the H5N1 influenza virus provided for research by the World Health Organization. They discovered that the mice that were injected with the drug displayed anti-viral activities and more stabilized autoimmune responses.

In particular, mycophenolic mofetil was found to act on the virus in different ways than those of existing neuraminidase-targeting avian influenza treatments including Roche’s oseltamivir, widely known as Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline’s zanamivir, sold under the name Relenza.

“These results indicated that MMF could represent a novel inhibitor of viral replication and a potent immunomodulator for the treatment of H5N1 virus infection,” the KNIH team wrote.

Looking ahead, KNIH said it plans to conduct clinical trials to prove the anti-viral properties of mycophenolic mofetil and later commercialize the drug for the treatment of avian influenza.

According to the WHO, H5N1 is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory disease in birds called avian influenza, or bird flu.

Human cases of H5N1 avian influenza occur only occasionally, and the infection is not easily transmitted from person to person. But when people do become infected, the mortality rate reaches around 60 percent.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)