New publications
A banned drug may fight the flu
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Methamphetamine destroys the flu virus.
Methamphetamine is one of the most widely used addictive drugs in the world. It is estimated that about 30 million people use it. Addiction to this drug can lead to anorexia, cardiovascular dysfunction, ataxic thinking, and other negative consequences. However, Taiwanese scientists have discovered that this substance also has a positive property that was previously unknown - methamphetamine can be effective in treating influenza.
Previous studies have shown that regular methamphetamine use makes a person more susceptible to various pathogens, such as the human immunodeficiency virus. However, it turns out that the influenza A virus is not one of these pathogens, since methamphetamine actually suppresses it.
To conduct their study, the Taiwanese scientists used human lung epithelial cells. The scientists first exposed the cells to methamphetamine in varying amounts and then exposed them to the influenza A virus. This type of virus is often the cause of epidemics and pandemics of respiratory diseases.
As a result, the scientists found that after a period of 30 to 48 hours, cells that had been pre-exposed to varying amounts of methamphetamine had significantly fewer live infectious agents left in them than cells in the control group that had not received their dose of methamphetamine. The higher the dose of methamphetamine, the fewer live viruses remained in the cells.
"We have obtained the first evidence that methamphetamine significantly reduces the susceptibility of human lung epithelial cells to influenza infection," the scientists concluded.
Scientists do not recommend using methamphetamine in its currently available form. However, they are going to continue experiments with this drug to find out in what form and in what way it can help treat flu without causing negative side effects.
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