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Antiviral therapies against Ebola and other emerging viral diseases using existing medicines that block virus entry

Long, Jason, Wright, Edward, Molesti, Eleonora, Temperton, Nigel J., Barclay, Wendy (2015) Antiviral therapies against Ebola and other emerging viral diseases using existing medicines that block virus entry. F1000 Research, . (doi:doi: 10.12688/f1000research.6085.1) (KAR id:47022)

Abstract

Emerging viral diseases pose a threat to the global population as intervention strategies are mainly limited to basic containment due to the lack of efficacious and approved vaccines and antiviral drugs. The former was the only available intervention when the current unprecedented Ebolavirus (EBOV) outbreak in West Africa began. Prior to this, the development of EBOV vaccines and anti-viral therapies required time and resources that were not available. Therefore, focus has turned to re-purposing of existing, licenced medicines that may limit the morbidity and mortality rates of EBOV and could be used immediately. Here we test three such medicines and measure their ability to inhibit pseudotype viruses (PVs) of two EBOV species, Marburg virus (MARV) and avian influenza H5 (FLU-H5). We confirm the ability of chloroquine (CQ) to inhibit viral entry in a pH specific manner. The commonly used proton pump inhibitors, Omeprazole and Esomeprazole were also able to inhibit entry of all PVs tested but at higher drug concentrations than may be achieved in vivo. We propose CQ as a priority candidate to consider for treatment of EBOV.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: doi: 10.12688/f1000research.6085.1
Subjects: Q Science > QR Microbiology > QR355 Virology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Medway School of Pharmacy
Depositing User: Nigel Temperton
Date Deposited: 31 Jan 2015 15:00 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 03:05 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/47022 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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