F-102 Antivirals, a lot has been achieved, yet a long way to go

Abstract

Today, small molecule antiviral drugs are available for the treatment of infections with herpesviruses, HIV, HBV and HCV as well as with influenza viruses. Yet, for many other viruses that cause life-threatening infections and many of which are considered emerging and/or neglected pathogens, there are no drugs available. I will discuss our efforts to develop potent antivirals against flaviviruses (such as dengue), alphaviruses (such as chikungunya) and enteroviruses as well as against the hepatitis E and the rabies virus. Several excellent molecular targets for the selective inhibition of viral replication (and that have remained largely unexplored) have been identified, such as the non-structural protein NS4B of flaviviruses, the capping machinery of alphaviruses and the 2C helicase of enteroviruses. Besides the development of antiviral strategies, our team is also developing novel vaccines. More in particular we developed the PLLAV (Plasmid Launched Live Attenuated Virus) vaccine technology platform. Simple administration (mice, hamsters, NHP and pigs) of a PLLAV-plasmid that carries the entire coding sequence of the yellow fever 17D vaccine virus, results in the efficient vaccination. Next we demonstrate that foreign sequences can be inserted in the YFV-17D sequence, thus resulting in, for example, dual vaccine candidates against either the yellow fever and the rabies virus or the yellow fever and the Lassa fever virus. The PLLAV technology allows to rapidly produce using a straightforward fermentation process thermostable alternatives for live attenuated viral vaccines. www.antivirals.be www.facebook.com/NeytsLab