DRACO is a group of experimental antiviral drugs in development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In cell culture, DRACO has been reported to have broad spectrum efficacy against many infectious viruses, including dengue flaviviruses, Amapari and Tacaribe arenaviruses, guava bunyavirus, H1N1 influenza, and rhinoviruses, and efficacy against influenza in vivo has also been found. in weaned mice. It has been reported to selectively induce rapid apoptosis in virus-infected mammalian cells, leaving uninfected cells uninfected.
As of January 2014, the work has been moved to the Draper Laboratory for further testing and development; “The team expects large-scale animal trials and human clinical trials within a decade or less,” said Dr. Todd Rider who presented at the SENS Foundation's SENS6 conference and who also left Draper Laboratory in May 2015. and started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds to test the drugs against the herpesvirus and retrovirus families.
In 2015, an independent research group reported successfully observing antiviral activity against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) using DRACO in vitro.
As of December 2015, research related to DRACO had been halted due to lack of funding, caused by competition from other broad-spectrum antivirals and the narrowness of published research on DRACO.
DRACO is selective for virus-infected cells. The differentiation between infected and healthy cells is made primarily through the length and type of the RNA transcription helices present within the cell. Most viruses produce long dsRNA helices during transcription and replication. In contrast, uninfected mammalian cells generally produce dsRNA helices of less than 24 base pairs during transcription. The death cell is performed through one of the last steps in the apoptosis pathway in which complexes containing molecules bind intracellular apoptotic signaling simultaneously multiple procaspases. Las procaspasas se transactivan mediante escisión, activan caspasas adicionales en la cascada y escinden una variedad de proteínas celulares, matando así a la célula.
