Successful treatment of advanced Ebola virus infection with T-705 (favipiravir) in a small animal model

Abstract

Outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in sub-Saharan Africa are associated with case fatality rates of up to 90%. Currently, neither a vaccine nor an effective antiviral treatment is available for use in humans. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of the pyrazinecarboxamide derivative T-705 (favipiravir) against Zaire Ebola virus (EBOV) in vitro and in vivo. T-705 suppressed replication of Zaire EBOV in cell culture by 4log units with an IC90 of 110μM. Mice lacking the type I interferon receptor (IFNAR(-)(/)(-)) were used as in vivo model for Zaire EBOV-induced disease. Initiation of T-705 administration at day 6 post infection induced rapid virus clearance, reduced biochemical parameters of disease severity, and prevented a lethal outcome in 100% of the animals. The findings suggest that T-705 is a candidate for treatment of Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal

Title: Antiviral Research

Abbreviated Title: Antiviral Research

Publisher: Elsevier BV

ISSN (Print): 01663542

Publication date Created: May 2014

Publication date (Print): May 2014

Volume: 105

Pages: 17-21

Article

DOI: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2014.02.014

PubMed ID: 24583123

Copyright statement: © 2014

License:

https://www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Product

Self URI (article page): https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0166354214000576