Characterization of filovirus host factors and small-molecule inhibitors of infection

Filoviruses are negative strand RNA viruses that can cause severe hemorrhagic fevers in human following zoonotic spillover events. Outbreaks of filovirus diseases are increasing in frequency and our knowledge of the Filoviridae family expended greatly recently with the discovery of new filoviruses in Europe, Africa and Asia that are also potentially pathogenic. While a vaccine against Ebola virus, one of the 5 species of ebolaviruses, is available, it does not protect well against all ebolaviruses and does not protect against other pathogenic filoviruses. Therefore, pan-filoviral antiviral therapy is urgently needed. In this proposed project, we aim to gain a molecular understanding of the filovirus-host cell interactions with the overarching goal of identifying and characterizing pan-filovirus small molecule inhibitors for the development of new pan-filoviral antiviral therapies.