DRACOs: Cure for nearly any viral infection?

A novel broad spectrum antiviral approach, DRACO, acronym for Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer has been developed by the researchers from Lincoln laboratory, MIT, USA. The work was published online in the Journal PLoS ONE. According to the study, DRACO, having two domains- one for binding to viral double stranded RNA (dsRNA) and another for inducing apoptosis when two or more DRACOs crosslink on the same dsRNA, are able to selectively induce apoptosis in cells containing viral dsRNA. This allows the killing of only infected cells without harming the healthy cells.

DRACOs with different dsRNA detection domain and apoptosis induction domains and transduction tags were prepared. It was shown to be effective against 15 different viruses including Rhinovirus, dengue flavivirus, tacaribe, amapari, and H1N1 influenza. It has been demonstrated that DRACO is nontoxic to 11 different mammalian cell types. It has also been tested in mice infected with H1N1 influenza. Treatment with DRACO has cured the infected mice.
Though further studies are needed, there is a great hope in the field of viral drug discovery. What do you say?