In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, experts from the National Institutes of Health, John Hopkins and Florida State University, looked into medicines already found in the market or are now in trials, whose compounds might be able to prevent the spread of Zika virus. Niclosamide is already approved in people and animals for battling parasitic infections, such as tapeworms, and PHA-690509 is an investigational compound with antiviral properties.
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Because the virus causes severe damage to the unborn baby, leading them to develop microcephaly, research teams from around the world have been scrambling to find a cure before more babies are born with the debilitating disease.
On Saturday, President Barack Obama called on the US Congress to step up funding to combat the Zika virus, warning that delay is putting more Americans at risk.
One stops the virus from replicating, and the other that stops the virus from killing foetal brain cells, also called neuroprogenitor cells. “However, it will be equally important to develop a concept for how these drugs could be used”.
Research on repurposing drugs to treat other illnesses is emerging as a new tool to come up with quicker remedies for disease. This technique has also been used in the hunt for an Ebola treatment.
“This is a first step toward a therapeutic that can stop transmission of this disease”, Tang said in a written statement.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Johns Hopkins scientists and a private company started by Johns Hopkins affiliates also are working on a vaccine.
There have been 77 cases of Zika in Maryland as of August 24, all of them related to travel. Zika has achieved epidemic status in the US territory of Puerto Rico, and is widespread throughout Central and South America.
And finally, investigators identified a third medication awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval that doesn’t directly act against Zika, but may be able to protect the brain cells of developing fetuses against viral damage. “Every study makes us even more concerned about the impact of Zika on the future generation. We need every available tool to prevent this disease and treat it”.
State health officials, who are conducting 10 investigations into local Zika cases in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties, reported no new travel related cases.
For example, researchers have to test in mice and primates whether the drugs are effective at all against Zika in living creatures, and whether they are safe to take during pregnancy, she explained.
Further analysis of the surviving cells, says Ming, showed that the promising drugs could be divided into two classes: neuroprotective drugs, which prevent the activation of mechanisms that cause cell death, and antiviral drugs, which slow or stop viral infection or replication.
A drug which has been used to treat tapeworm could be a secret weapon in the fight against the Zika virus. “So those compounds are mostly in clinical trials for the development”, Lee said. The study results were published last month in journal Cell & Host Microbe.
“Additional animal studies, and then human clinical trials, are necessary”.
Tang said tests are still needed to determine a specific treatment regimen for treating the infection.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito has been the primary carrier and most efficient transmitter of Zika. The CDC is advising preventive measures for people in these areas, including eliminating standing water where mosquitos breed and creating a barrier from bites with clothing and wearing insect repellents.
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The findings are a rare bit of good news about Zika, which has caused epidemics across Latin America and the Caribbean, and smaller outbreaks in Florida, the Pacific and southeast Asia.
