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ANTIVIRAL SCREENING AGAINST MULTIPLE VIRUSES
Phone: (314) 812-8144
Email: OLIVO@APATH.COM
Phone: (314) 812-8160
Email: MILTON@APATH.COM
DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): Although cell-based screening has been
used successfully throughout the drug-discovery field, it is problematic when
screening for antiviral compounds. This is because it requires inoculation of
infectious virus onto the cells and the production of additional infectious
progeny virus. Handling such infectious material is not easily compatible with
the high throughput process of screening large libraries of compounds. Partial
viral replication systems offer a way around this problem. Viral genomes which
lack one or more genetic elements that are essential for carrying out a
complete replication cycle offer a system in which viral genomic replication
and many other viral pathways occur within cells, but no infectious virus is
produced. A screening process that utilizes these incomplete viral genomes can
identify inhibitors of any biochemical pathway involved in viral genome
replication. In this proposal we plan to expand the capabilities of this
approach to be able to screen for multiple viruses simultaneously. By combining
cell lines, each of which contain a partially replicating viral genome, we can
screen for antiviral activity against each of the viruses simultaneously. In
addition to measuring the effect of a compound on genomic replication of
several viruses, this system provides information on the specificity of the
antiviral effect. This information is helpful in accessing whether the effect
is acting on a specific viral target or on a cellular target and thus exerting
its effect on the virus(es) indirectly. In addition this approach allows for
the identification of compounds which exhibit broad antiviral activity and
could therefore be effective against more than one virus.
PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *