Inhibition of respiratory syncytial virus infections with morpholino oligomers in cell cultures and in mice.

ABSTRACT: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infection in infants, young children, and high-risk adults. Currently, there is no vaccine to prevent RSV infection, and the available therapeutic agents are of limited utility. Peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PPMOs) are a class of antisense agents that can enter cells readily and interfere with viral protein expression through steric blocking of complementary RNA. Two antisense PPMOs, designed to target sequence that includes the 5'-terminal region and translation start-site region of RSV L mRNA, were tested for anti-RSV activity in cultures of two human-airway cell lines. Both PPMOs showed minimal cytotoxicity and one of them, (AUG-2), reduced viral titers by >2.0 log(10). Intranasal

SUBMITTER: Lai SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2782410 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature