To date, no safe treatment has been found to fight the Ebola epidemic that is rapidly spreading across western Africa. US researchers have now tested the efficacy of already approved medications and found 53 drugs that may have the potential to combat the virus. The study was published in "Emerging Microbes & Infections".
At first, the team from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda (Maryland) manipulated the virus in such a way that it had a lower biosafety level (from BSL four down to two), in order to make it safer to work with. This did not, however, affect its ability to enter the host cell.
Then they inserted a fluorescent reporter protein in the virus shell, whereby it was possible to test 2,800 components at high speed as to whether they were able to reduce the ability of the virus to enter the host cell by at least 50 per cent. In doing so, the researchers found 53 drugs that seemed suitable.
Among the most effective drugs were microtubule inhibitors that are used to treat cancer. But several other cancer drugs, antihistamines, antibiotics, oestrogen receptor modulators and serotonin reuptake inhibitors also proved to be effective. In a next step, the drug candidates will be tested in animal studies to see if the necessary doses lead to side effects.
Univadis
