NEW ORLEANS -- A medical breakthrough in the study of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is taking place in New Orleans.
Researchers at the Louisiana State University and Tulane health science centers have developed a model of the protein suspected to be responsible for the spread of the disease.
The information is being rushed to other scientists who are working on a SARS cure. It may show that certain drugs might be able to help.
It's the type of discovery that doctors normally wait to present at a medical conference or publish in a medical journal. But both health science centers published their finding on the Internet, hoping it could bring researchers closer to a treatment or cure.
LSU's Dr. William Gallaher and Tulane's Dr. Robert Garry are sharing credit.
The model shows that the surface protein attached to the SARS virus is similar to what's been discovered in the Ebola virus and HIV, it gives hope of a cure, researchers said.
"The similarity between this protein in HIV and a couple of very discreet regions is so high that actually, there are drugs in the pipeline that may directly work," Gallaher said.
"We already know that some drugs that work against those similar proteins in HIV and Ebola will block those viruses from infecting the cells," Garry said. "We're hoping to do the same thing with the new corona virus."
SARS can be fatal and is highly contagious through face-to-face contact and shared common surfaces.
The illness usually begins with fever, chills, headaches and body aches. After about seven days, the patient may develop a dry cough. At that point, doctors say too little oxygen will be getting into the blood, causing about 10 to 20 percent of patients to require a ventilator to breathe.