Application

Potent small molecule inhibitors of RNA viruses that cause many highly contagious and dangerous diseases such as canine distemper, RSV, influenza, and measles.

Key Benefits

• Inhibits measles, canine distemper, human parainfluenza, and influenza A viruses.
• May be used for the management of a disease and for rapid control of possible outbreaks.
• Molecules are directed against host factors that are involved in viral reproduction thus reducing the possibility of viral resistance.
• Provides a therapeutic and an improved alternative to current vaccinations.

Technical Summary

This technology identifies a number of small molecule myxovirus inhibitors. Myxoviruses cause a number of highly contagious and fatal diseases. These include mumps, measles, parainfluenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, a major cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants and children. Myxoviruses cause a number of serious and potentially deadly diseases in animals including dogs, cetaceans, birds, and cattle. Therefore, this technology is useful for human, veterinary, and livestock therapeutics. Two additional myxoviruses, Hendra and Nipah virus, have recently emerged and have since been classified by the CDC as potential biological weapons.

Inactivated vaccines cannot be administered to infants or immune compromised individuals and because immunity takes weeks to develop, they cannot be used for management and rapid control of outbreaks of these diseases. Our new molecules can be used to treat infections that otherwise only can be prevented with vaccinations. In addition, vaccination efficacy is reduced substantially when the infecting strain differs and mutates from those included in the vaccine. Unlike inactivated vaccines, our molecules are directed against host proteins. Targeting host factors is less likely to lead to viral mutations that can cause resistant viral strains like current resistant strains of influenza. These current weaknesses in vaccinations and treatments must be addressed and our myxovirus inhibitors provide new avenues for the development of antiviral therapeutics.

Developmental Stage

Proof of principle has been demonstrated in cells for measles, canine distemper, human parainfluenza, influenza, and Niaph viruses.