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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

amantadine blockage, Influenza A, M2 proton transporter

College

Life Sciences

Department

Physiology and Developmental Biology

Abstract

The reproduction of influenza A is very closely regulated by the pH levels maintained both in the cytoplasm and in various organelles of a host cell. To accommodate this, the virus provides genetic coding to assemble an M2 transporter which regulates the flow of protons across the different membranes. Until recently, influenza A was treated with a drug known commonly as amantadine (1-aminoadamantane), which blocked M2 proton transport. Unfortunately, by the year 2005, 91% of known influenza A strains had mutated to the extent that amantadine was no longer an effective reagent (High, 2006 p. 44). The 2009 epidemic of the H1N1 flu virus, more commonly known as swine flu, is a prime example of a mutated and unregulated strain reproducing freely in society, and demonstrates the ever increasing need to understand the method by which the virus can be stopped from propagating. My project began to test the amantadine resistance of various mutants which encode the influenza M2 proton transporter and localize the binding site of drugs which can potentially block it. Stopping this transporter will stop viral reproduction.

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