National Institutes of Health researchers have partnered with Florida State University and Johns Hopkins University and discovered three compounds that work to hamper the ability of Zika virus to replicate and destroy brain cells.
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They were delighted to find a drug already on the market and considered safe to use in pregnant women.
The research collaboration includes teams from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the US National Institutes of Health and Florida State University.
“We specifically in this screen tried to take advantage of compounds that are already FDA-approved or in some stage of clinical development”, said study co-author Emily Lee. In July 2016, the first cases of local or non-travel related transmission of Zika virus in the continental USA were reported in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The team reported it has identified nine compounds, medicinal mixtures, that appear to stop the virus from killing fetal brain cells and from reproducing.
The three drugs identified are PHA-690509, which is investigational and is being used on cancer patients; emricasan, which is being used in clinical trials to determine whether it might be able to help reduce liver damage from the hepatitis C virus; and niclosamide.
Women and men who are family planning should not travel to areas where Zika is common during the next year or so, she added.
A Zika outbreak began in South America in mid-2015; the disease is now known to be responsible both for microcephaly, in which infants are born with severely underdeveloped brains, and for temporary paralysis in adults due to Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Tang said it is possible researchers eventually could formulate the drugs to give to pregnant women. “The probability of Zika-induced microcephaly occurring doesn’t appear to be that high, but when it does, the damage is terrible”. The Zika virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes mosquito but can also be spread by sexual contact.
“If people are being used as reservoirs for the virus, we might want to start proactively treating populations where Zika is in circulation, to stop the circulation”, she said.
In the next four weeks, SC and 10 other states should begin screening blood donations for the Zika virus, following a U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommendation.
“There is still much uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of Zika virus transmission”, Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the statement.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Friday that he would travel to Washington when Congress reconvenes next month to urge legislators to pass emergency Zika funding for states. This led to the search for drug compounds that might prevent the viral damage.
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More than 2,500 people in the United States have been diagnosed with Zika, along with more than 9,000 in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
