Polyamines and Hypusination Are Required for Ebolavirus Gene Expression and Replication.

ABSTRACT: Ebolavirus (EBOV) is an RNA virus that is known to cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates : EBOV successfully enters and replicates in many cell types. This replication is dependent on the virus successfully coopting a number of cellular factors. Many of these factors are currently unidentified but represent potential targets for antiviral therapeutics. Here we show that cellular polyamines are critical for EBOV replication. We found that small-molecule inhibitors of polyamine synthesis block gene expression driven by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Short hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown of the polyamine pathway enzyme spermidine synthase also resulted in reduced EBOV replication. These findings led us to further investigate spermidine, a polyamine that is essenti

SUBMITTER: Olsen ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4981715 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature