Discoveries
New technique for blocking smallpox may enhance antiviral drugs
Most treatments for short-term viral illnesses target the virus itself — and tend to lose their potency when the virus mutates into new forms. To overcome this problem, Dana-Farber researchers and their colleagues have devised an approach that essentially traps the virus inside cells and prevents it from using them as launch pads to replicate itself.
Ellis Reinherz, MD
In a study earlier this year, the investigators reported success with the technique, using lab-grown monkey kidney cells and a mouse model of smallpox infection. If the same approach proves feasible in humans, it could sharply reduce smallpox's potential as a weapon, the authors say.
The finding is one of the first products of a federal campaign to decrease the likelihood and impact of a bioterror attack on the United States. The suspension of vaccination against smallpox in the U.S. during the early 1970s is thought to have left most Americans with little resistance to the often-fatal disease. The risk that the vaccine could harm people with weakened immune systems or autoimmune diseases has spurred the search for new treatments and vaccines.
"The approach we've taken is based on a new understanding of the basic mechanisms of viral reproduction and movement — the actual steps that take place once a virus has invaded the body," says the study's senior author, Ellis Reinherz, MD, of Dana-Farber.
"Our results demonstrate the principle that viral diseases can be effectively fought by blocking cellular signaling pathways that viruses depend on for reproduction" he adds. "We now have a model of an approach that could be used to treat a wide array of acute viral conditions."
