Ebola and amiodarone

PURPOSE: Remdesivir, a drug originally developed against Ebola virus, is currently recommended for patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). In spite of United States Food and Drug Administration's recent assent of remdesivir as the only approved agent for COVID-19, there is limited information available about the physicochemical, metabolism, transport, pharmacokinetic (PK), and drug-drug interaction (DDI) properties of this drug. The objective of this in silico simulation work was to simulate the biopharmaceutical and DDI behavior of remdesivir and characterize remdesivir PK properties in special populations which are highly affected by COVID-19...

At the onset of the 2013-2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD), no vaccine or antiviral medication was approved for treatment. Therefore, considerable efforts were directed towards the concept of drug repurposing or repositioning. Amiodarone, an approved multi-ion channel blocker for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia, was reported to inhibit filovirus entry in vitro. Compassionate use of amiodarone in EVD patients indicated a possible survival benefit. In support of further clinical testing, we confirmed anti-Ebola virus activity of amiodarone in different cell types...

Ebola Virus Disease is one of the most lethal transmissible infections characterized by a high fatality rate. Several research studies have aimed to identify effective antiviral agents. Amiodarone, a drug used for the treatment of arrhythmias, has been shown to inhibit filovirus infection in vitro by acting at the early step of the viral replication cycle. Here we demonstrate that amiodarone reduces virus binding to target cells and slows down the progression of the viral particles along the endocytic pathway...

Ebola virus (EBOV) is a filamentous, enveloped, non-segmented, negative-strand ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus which belongs to family Filoviridae. Ebola virus includes different glycoproteins each of which plays their roles in different aspects of viral life cycle. In this study secreted glycoprotein (Q7T9E0) of Ebola virus was acquired from Uniprot. The formation of alpha helix and beta sheets of secondary structures were predicted through online servers. Higher flexibility and disordered regions of proteins were determined through RONN, GLOBPLOT and DISSEMBLE...

Ebola virus disease (EVD) is one of the most lethal transmissible infections characterized by a high fatality rate, and a treatment has not been developed yet. Recently, it has been shown that cationic amphiphiles, among them the antiarrhythmic drug amiodarone, inhibit filovirus infection. In the present work, we investigated how amiodarone interferes with Ebola virus infection. Wild-type Sudan ebolavirus and recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus, pseudotyped with the Zaire ebolavirus glycoprotein, were used to gain further insight into the ability of amiodarone to affect Ebola virus infection...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the current Ebola virus epidemic and the potential options for treatment and prevention of Ebola virus disease. DATA SOURCES: A PubMed literature search (1976 through October 20, 2014) was conducted using the search term Ebola. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: Animal and human studies published in English were selected. Studies published within the past 5 years were the primary focus of this review. DATA SYNTHESIS: The current Ebola virus epidemic has primarily been contained in West Africa though it has subsequently spread to other areas, including the United States...

OBJECTIVES: Filoviruses such as Ebola virus and Marburg virus cause a severe haemorrhagic fever syndrome in humans for which there is no specific treatment. Since filoviruses use a complex route of cell entry that depends on numerous cellular factors, we hypothesized that there may be drugs already approved for human use for other indications that interfere with signal transduction or other cellular processes required for their entry and hence have anti-filoviral properties. METHODS: We used authentic filoviruses and lentiviral particles pseudotyped with filoviral glycoproteins to identify and characterize such compounds...