Development of Locked Nucleic Acid Antisense Oligonucleotides Targeting Ebola Viral Proteins and Host Factor Niemann-Pick C1.

ABSTRACT: The Ebola virus is a zoonotic pathogen that can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans, with up to 90% lethality. The deadly 2014 Ebola outbreak quickly made an unprecedented impact on human lives. While several vaccines and therapeutics are under development, current approaches contain several limitations, such as virus mutational escape, need for formulation or refrigeration, poor scalability, long lead-time, and high cost. To address these challenges, we developed locked nucleic acid (LNA)-modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to target critical Ebola viral proteins and the human intracellular host protein Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1), required for viral entry into infected cells. We generated noninfectious viral luciferase reporter assays to identify LNA ASOs that inhibit translation

SUBMITTER: Chery J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6425983 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature