In addition to providing large numbers of validated highly novel targets for infectious disease drug discovery, it is possible that the Zirus human host targets will be more resistant to viral mutation than drugs to viral targets. Viruses are famous for mutating to avoid vaccines and drugs that are made to block viral proteins and nucleic acids. A drug that targets the virus can often be avoided by the virus making very small changes to itself. That is why viruses scare us so much. It is easy to understand that a virus that changes itself rapidly, like HCV and HIV, is impossible to block with a single drug over a long period of time.

Importantly, Zirus’s targets are human gene products, such as cellular proteins, that the virus has evolved to need, perhaps over thousands of years. In order to avoid drugs to the Zirus targets, the virus would need to change itself to use a different human protein. Thus, it is likely that Zirus’s targets can produce therapies that are longer lasting, more resistant to viral mutations or combinable with conventional antiviral drugs.

It is likely that Zirus’s targets can produce therapies that are longer lasting and more resistant to viral mutations.