Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jan 11, 2026 1 month, 2 weeks, 17 hours, 23 minutes ago
Medical News: A New Way to Fight a Dangerous Winter Virus
A team of Chinese scientists has reported a promising breakthrough against influenza A infection a disease still responsible for more than one billion illnesses and about half a million deaths worldwide each year. The researchers are from Ocean University of China Qingdao, Xuzhou Vocational College of Industrial Technology Xuzhou, the Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology Qingdao, and the Qingdao Institute for Food and Drug Control China. Their discovery could change how doctors treat flu outbreaks and may offer hope against strains that no longer respond to standard medicines.
New inhaled nanoparticles carrying penindolone outperformed oseltamivir in suppressing flu and
protecting infected lungs
The Limitations of Today’s Flu Medicines
For decades doctors relied mainly on neuraminidase inhibitors such as oseltamivir and zanamivir plus newer polymerase blockers like baloxavir. But influenza A mutates rapidly. That constant shape shifting allows the virus to sidestep drugs that previously worked well. Resistance has already been recorded across many common flu strains and patients can also experience side effects ranging from nausea to nervous system symptoms.
What Makes Penindolone Special
Penindolone or PND is a new experimental compound discovered in a fungus. Unlike current medicines it works by targeting hemagglutinin the spike on the virus surface responsible for grabbing onto lung cells and breaking through the cell membrane.
PND blocks two steps in that attack:
• The virus attaching to the cell
• The virus fusing its membrane to enter the cell
Laboratory research shows this dual action works against multiple strains and because it hits a part of the virus that changes slowly the risk of drug resistance is low. But PND has a major flaw—it does not dissolve well in water which means it works poorly if swallowed as a pill.
Nanoparticles Turn a Weakness into A Strength
To solve the problem the research team packaged PND into tiny nanoparticles made from a safe biodegradable polymer called mPEG PDLLA. These particles are small enough to be inhaled directly into the lungs—exactly where influenza causes the most damage.
This
Medical News report notes that in cell studies, the nanoparticle form lowered toxicity and boosted antiviral strength dramatically. Free PND could only slow the flu virus at relatively high doses but PND nanoparticles stopped infection at concentrations more than ten times lower.
Real World Proof in Mice
When flu infected mice inhaled PND nanoparticles every day the results were striking.
• Viral levels in the lungs dropped sharply
;
• Dangerous inflammatory molecules such as TNF-α IL-1β and IL-6 were suppressed
• Lung tissue damage was reduced
• Mice lived twice as long as those treated with oseltamivir
No serious side effects were reported and the nanoparticles spread evenly through lung tissue.
Why This Matters
This study hints at a future where flu patients could receive a fast-acting inhaled therapy that bypasses the bloodstream delivers medicine directly to infected tissue reduces drug resistance and avoids many side effects linked to pills.
Conclusion
The findings strongly suggest that inhalable penindolone nanoparticles may open an entirely new chapter in influenza treatment. By solving solubility limits and delivering the compound straight to the lungs, scientists demonstrated antiviral activity clearly superior to oseltamivir with lower toxicity broader protection and reduced inflammatory harm. If future human trials confirm these results this approach could expand our defenses against seasonal outbreaks and future flu pandemics making treatment faster safer and more reliable for people worldwide.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1773224724005707
For the latest on Influenza research, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
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