SBIR-STTR Award

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants, young children and adults. In the absence of an effective vaccine and less controversial compounds to prevent or ameliorate RSV infections, RSV remains a serious health threat and a sustained effort must be mounted to find new agents with enhanced efficacy. We have identified an Ethnobotanical (EB) preparation (ZX-2187P) that shows significant anti-RSV activity. The overall scope of this application is to investigate the potential of this EB preparation as a therapeutic for controlling RSV infections. The specific aims include, evaluation of anti-RSV activity of ZX-2187P against multiple RSV strains in multiple cell lines using in vitro assay systems, performing in vivo anti-RSV evaluation of ZX-2187P, conducting experiments to elucidate the mechanism(s) of action of ZX-2187P and performing extraction, fractionation and purification of ZX-2187P to identify pure compound(s). PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: RSV is a major virus pathogen of infants and young children, an important cause of disease in adults and is responsible for a significant amount of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. No vaccines are available and the combination of ribavirin and immunoglobulin approved for use is expensive and difficult to administer. Thus, any new agent(s), which can control RSV infection, has a huge economical impact

Lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchiolitis and pneumonia in pediatrics and some adults are caused by respiratory syncytial virus. The therapies include the controversial ribavirin for treatment or humanized RSV monoclonal antibodies (Synagis) for prevention. The cost per season for Synagis prophylaxis is about US$ 5,000. In the absence of an effective vaccine, RSV remains a serious health threat and effort must be mounted to find effective and more economical therapies. An innovative approach of treating RSV infection with ethnobotanical (EB) preparations was identified in Phase I of this project and this concept has the potential of reducing the current treatment cost. In Phase I, the feasibility of the concept was proved by the significant in vitro and in vivo anti-RSV activity, which was better or comparable to ribavirin. This approach of using EB preparations with historical use as a treatment to target diseases was developed in enough detail to provide a basis for further development of active ingredients as anti-RSV agents. In Phase II, the active compounds in these EB fractions will be chemically purified, characterized and developed to the level of readiness required to launch clinical evaluation of these compounds as therapeutic agents against RSV infections.

Thesaurus Terms:
antiviral agent, chemical structure function, drug design /synthesis /production, drug discovery /isolation, medicinal plant, plant extract, respiratory syncytial virus drug screening /evaluation, pharmacokinetics, protein purification biotechnology, cell line, laboratory mouse, laboratory rat