Everyday Scientist

Tamiflu – July Molecule of the Month

July 23, 2006 at 11:28 pm | ilya | nerd, wild web

From the wild, wild web comes a pretty fun site: Molecule of the Month (MOTM), brought to you by Dr. Paul May of Bristol University Dept of Chemistry. I recommend you check this out when you’ve got 5 minutes to kill while that ol’ laser is warming up.
Tamiflu, in all its glory:

Some neat tidbits on Tamiflu, care of the excellent MOTM Tamiflu Page:

• Tamiflu is made from a complicated 10 step synthesis that requires shikimic acid, a product extracted with great pain (and cost) from anise seeds.
• Tamiflu is our best bet against avian influenza. It binds to the neuraminidase protein on the viral coat and reduces the virus from exiting an infiected cell, thereby reducing the number of infected cells.
• There comes a point when the number of infected cells is too large for the tamiflu to work effectively therefore it must be taken as early as possible.