A team of Florida State University researchers is behind a new discovery in treating the Zika virus.
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In February, the FDA recommended testing of donated blood and blood components only in areas where Zika was actively spreading, but agency officials now say that universal testing is needed to further protect those who get donated blood. This time, it involves a drug that could stop the virus in humans. That includes $38 million from fighting Ebola, US$44 million from general public health emergency funds and, most recently, US$81 million from programmes at the National Institutes of Health and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Infection by the Zika virus may be related to fetal microcephaly, an abnormally small head resulting from an underdeveloped and/or damaged brain.
Blood testing has already started in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston also looked at how existing drugs can treat Zika.
The anti-tapeworm drug, in use for almost half a century, could also be given to men and non-pregnant women exposed to the virus, both to reduce transmission and possibly to prevent other neurological problems caused by Zika. Hengli Tang, a professor of biological sciences at Florida State University and co-author of the study, said that after Zika infection, the damage done to neural cells is typically “dramatic and irreversible”. However, some of the compounds tested allowed the cells to survive longer and, in some cases, fully recover from infections. Three lead compounds, emiracsan, niclosamide and a CDK inhibitor known as PHA-690509, were identified as reducing neuronal cell death caused by Zika virus infection.These compounds were effective either in inhibiting the replication of Zika or in preventing the virus from killing brain cells.
They screened 6,000 compounds that were either already approved or were in the process of a clinical trial because they could be made more quickly available to people infected by Zika. Niclosamide worked as an antiviral agent in these experiments. Scientists have not yet determined if the drug can even penetrate the central nervous system of adults or a fetus inside a carrier’s womb to treat the brain cells targeted by Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults. Now, it’s all about hoping that more support goes to finding out if this cocktail will work or not.
The change by the nonprofit community blood center follows a “revised guidance” by the FDA recommending that all states and USA territories screen whole blood and blood components for Zika to curtail transmission of the virus, which is associated with an increased risk of catastrophic birth defects.
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A team of researchers may have taken the first steps towards creating a treatment for Zika infections.
