
New drug forces flu virus into ‘error catastrophe,’ overwhelming with mutations - eternalny1
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/new-drug-forces-flu-virus-error-catastrophe-overwhelming-it-mutations
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perl4ever
Seems like replacing cytosine could have some negative side effects if it
occurs in the patient's cells as well as the virus's.

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ars
"Even though sequencing clearly shows the virus trying to resist the drug, no
resistant strains developed."

I don't understand how that works. How does it "try" to resist? Isn't this
all-or-nothing to the virus? Either it reproduces or it doesn't?

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tonydiep
They mutate. 'Resist' implies intent which they don't have. But they mutate
when they reproduce. Some mutations will given them drug resistance but they
haven't lucked into them yet.

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djmips
If this formulation encourages mutations, doesn't that feel like it will play
right into your described method of lucking into resistance?

