Results from research conducted in Niagara University’s Biomedical Research Institute has been accepted for publication in the Volume 41, March 2025 issue of Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports. The article, co-authored by Dr. Mary McCourt, Dr. Lawrence Mielnick, Julie Hughes, and Mary Irving is currently available online.

“Development of a general anti-viral therapeutic using cholestosome technology to exploit inhibition of intracellular viral production” details the researchers’ efforts at treating virus infection using cholestosome encapsulated zinc. In all cases, infected cells treated with the cholestosome encapsulated zinc inhibited viral replication to a greater extent than unencapsulated zinc, with encapsulated zinc treated cells showing up to a 55% reduction in viral load. These results mark the first required steps toward using cholestosome encapsulated zinc as a general antiviral treatment.