Crystal meth might help prevent flu –study

Methamphetamine, a highly addictive –and abused– substance, may be harnessed as an effective prevention measure for the flu, a work by researchers from Taiwan and Germany suggests.

 

Researchers from Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes and Germany's University of Regensburg came up with this while looking into how meth interacts with viral infections.

 

Reduced susceptibility

 

"What they observed surprised them. Instead of increasing the rate of development and spread of the virus, meth seems to reduce susceptibility to flu," tech site Gizmodo reported, citing a report on peer-reviewed open access journal Plos One.

 

But before anyone tries to acquire meth to stave off the flu, Gizmodo warned the experiment that led to this suggestion involved using only one strain of flu.

 

There is still no sign if meth can protect against other types, it said.

 

"(M)ost important, this in an entirely lab-based test: the experiments were performed in a Petri dishes of cells, not on real patients or animal models," it said.

 

Don't self-prescribe

 

"Just don't self-prescribe yet, please," it added.

 

The report said meth had been believed to increase the risk of picking up viruses because it suppresses the immune response of the body.

 

But the researchers found otherwise when they tested this hypothesis.

 

In their research, the scientists used human lung cells and nurtured them in the lab, before exposing some of them to cystal meth.

 

They then exposed the cells to the H1N1 influenza virus.

 

Gizmodo said the "counter-intuitive finding" is interesting as it suggests that meth users "may, weirdly, be at a lower risk of contracting flu than the rest of us." — TJD, GMA News