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Rapidly mutating viruses, such as influenza virus and HIV, can become resistant to antiviral drugs that target viral genes. Yet for a virus to infect human cells requires not only viral genes but also host-cell genes that encode proteins the virus needs to complete its life cycle.
Whereas the genes of some viruses mutate rapidly, host-cell genes mutate slowly. So targeting host-cell proteins that are critical to viral replication could prove to be a potent and durable approach to antiviral therapy. RNA interference (JW Gen Med Dec 31 2003) was used previously to knock out each human gene, one by one, to determine which genes are essential for replication of HIV (JW Gen Med Jan 17 2008). U.S. and German teams independently took the same appro…