News Health & Medicine

A new antiviral blocks 6 deadly viruses in mice but faces a long road ahead

A sugar on the viruses may be their weak spot. Questions about potency and resistance remain

A colorized electron microscope image of the Ebola virus, shown as a long, red filamentous structure against a background of blue cell-like shapes.

Particles of Ebola virus (one shown in a scanning electron micrograph) use a specific sugar to enter host cells. That sugar is now the target for broad spectrum antiviral medications.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

By Payal Dhar

A sugar present on virus envelopes might become the target of new antiviral treatments for a range of viruses, researchers report August 27 in Science Advances.