Dr. Priya Luthra
Center for Microbial Pathogenesis, Institute for Biomedical Sciences
Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Date: Monday, 16 April 2018
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Venue: Seminar Room 1, G/F, Laboratory Block, Faculty of Medicine Building
21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Summary: 
Ebola virus (EBOV) is serious threat to public health with high fatality rates and no approved drugs for treatment of infection. The high virulence of EBOV is attributed to its ability to subvert host innate immune responses, which leads to uncontrolled replication and a cytokine storm. The EBOV VP35 protein is a key layer responsible for evading type I interferon (IFN) responses that also contributes to the function of the viral polymerase complex. We have applied a multi-prong approach to identify small molecules that can either directly target the VP35 protein IFN antagonism, elicit innate immune responses that bypass VP35 IFN-antagonism or that target the EBOV polymerase complex. We developed cell-based highthroughput screening assays and screened several thousands compounds in two different assays. This work led to identification of novel small molecules with potent inhibitory activity against EBOV. Interestingly, our lead compounds also showed activation of innate immune responses contributing to antiviral responses. We have further characterized these mechanisms of interferon signaling activation to identify additional novel avenues for anti-EBOV therapeutic development.

ALL ARE WELCOME