Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Ebolavirus Entry: From Molecular Characterization to Drug Discovery
Version 1
: Received: 20 February 2019 / Approved: 21 February 2019 / Online: 21 February 2019 (13:13:34 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Salata, C.; Calistri, A.; Alvisi, G.; Celestino, M.; Parolin, C.; Palù, G. Ebola Virus Entry: From Molecular Characterization to Drug Discovery. Viruses 2019, 11, 274. Salata, C.; Calistri, A.; Alvisi, G.; Celestino, M.; Parolin, C.; Palù, G. Ebola Virus Entry: From Molecular Characterization to Drug Discovery. Viruses 2019, 11, 274.
Abstract
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is one of the most lethal transmissible infections characterized by a high fatality rate, and caused by members of the Filoviridae family. The recent large outbreak of EVD in West Africa (2013-2016), highlighted the worldwide danger of this disease and its impact on global public health and economy. The development of highly needed anti-Filoviridae antivirals has been so far hampered by the shortage of tools to study their life cycle in vitro, and therefore screen for potential active compounds outside a biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) containment. Importantly, the development of surrogate models to in vitro study of Filoviridae entry in a BSL-2 setting, such as viral pseudotypes and Ebola virus like particles, tremendously boosted both our knowledge on viral life cycle and the identification of promising anti-Filoviridae compounds interfering with viral entry. In this context, the combination of such surrogate systems with large-scale small molecule compounds and haploid genetic screenings, as well as rational drug design and drug repurposing approaches will prove priceless in our quest for the development of a treatment for EVD.
Keywords
Ebolavirus; Filoviridae; VSV; retroviral vectors; virus like particles; pseudovirus; antivirals; small molecules; viral entry.
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Virology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Comments (0)
We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.
Leave a public commentSend a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment