Abstract
Recognition of the serendipitous history of amantadine, first as a flu treatment and now as a Parkinson disease drug, and its adamantine persistence, and how small changes, like rearranging a few letters in a word or a DNA strand, can have a big impact.
adamantine (adj.)1
: made of or having the quality of adamant
: rigidly firm: UNYIELDING
: resembling the diamond in hardness or luster
amantadine (n.)
:blocks viral particle uncoating and nucleic acid release into host cell, inhibiting viral replication
:exact mechanism in Parkinson’s disease unknown
:potentiates CNS dopaminergic response
The virus graphic in my middle school life science class
had a diamanté shaped head, teetering on spidery legs.
Influenza is not diamond-shaped, though:
flu, whether spherical or filamentous,
has spikes that penetrate,2 ultimately yielding to amantadine.
Yet amantadine itself yielded to progress:
its—ta-da!—disappeared in the hocus pocus of mutant bugs,
now superseded in flu prophylaxis and treatment by
new drugs that loosened flu’s grip
then the hand of fate shook with serendipity
rigidity loosened, tremor abated in a patient with Parkinson’s and the flu3
from this eve of a new era, adamant researchers recruited more Adams and Eves,
man and woman,
clinical research cohorts of men and women
cogs, wheels turned
amygdalas mediating excitement at this new application
carrying the mantle alone or with other drugs:
a few letters substituted
like codons in a DNA strand, like the swipe of a scythe from glutamic acid to valine
missense, nonsense,
frameshift of perspective
no use to new use
adamantine amantadine
Declarations
Conflict of Interest:
No conflict of interest.
Footnotes
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References
- 1.“adamantine.” Merriam Webster Dictionary.https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adamantine. Accessed July 14, 2024.
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