Influenza cure research

Introduction
Influenza pandemic have historically killed hundreds of millions of people and it is conceivable that the latest outbreak of swine flu could do so again.

Some of those researching treatment options consider the others to be rivals and not without reason; whoever cures influenza will receive a great deal of wealth and prestige. If no one cures influenza however, many of us could lose our own lives or those of loved ones, which it would make not seeing any of our rivals succeed a rather hollow victory.

Speculation is to be placed in the discussion page as much as possible; obviously interpretations of experimental results are speculative to some degree and can be included with the data.

Potential cures would fall into six main approaches and it would be most efficient to sort data according to which approach it fits with.

1. Restriction Enzymes; and other means of preventing viruses from reproducing after they enter a cell.
Probably a good place to enter any information on influenza genes == 2. ‘salts’, ‘soaps’ and other things which take advantage of the greater dipoles of virus' protein coats as opposed to the lipid bi-layer surrounding most human cells, in order to make them unable to inject their genes into host cells == Any information on the influenza viral protein coats can be entered here.

4. Vaccination.
Technically this would be strengthening the immune system towards a virus, but researches into vaccines focus their attention on the illness to be treated rather than the patient, so it is efficient to give it a separate category.

5. Controlled weakening of the immune system
Cytokine storms in which the immune system overreacts to the infection are responsible for a significant portion of flu related deaths. Methods for weakening the immune system enough to prevent that while leaving it strong enough to fight off the virus occasionally can save lives.