Artificial 'candy canes' block viruses

(Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf) Synthetic chains of molecules containing different sugars can inhibit viruses effectively. The extent to which such molecules could be used as antiviral drugs is illustrated by a team of researchers from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and University of Münster (WWU) in the February edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.