Blocking viruses’ exit strategy

In a new paper in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, investigators from Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, working together with scientists from the Fox Chase Chemical Diversity Center and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, report encouraging results from tests of an experimental antiviral targeting Marburg virus, a relative of the Ebola virus. The compound blocks the virus from departing infected cells, thus putting the brakes on the spread of infection. Their findings are the first to show that this novel class of inhibitors can be effective against the infection in an animal model.