A novel antiviral to combat dengue infection, disease and transmission

The funding will enable scale-up of DIP production and evaluation of anti- dengue DIPs in vitro and in vivo using mouse and mosquito models of dengue infection. The only widely available therapy for dengue infection is administration of fluids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. We seek to shift current treatment regimen by proposing a new application of DIPs. This novel approach could revolutionize therapy for dengue infection, as DIPs can reduce virus replication and therefore could ameliorate the inflammatory response to the infection. DIPs therapy will completely avoid antibody dependent enhancement of dengue infection unlike other antibody-based therapies and vaccines, which has hindered their development. DIP therapy has potential to be used in an integrated DENV control strategy and, therefore, represents a paradigm-shift in DENV control by implementing an innovative approach to treat DENV infected people. Our project aims to generate a preclinical data package that will be sufficient for first in man studies. In the longer term, our approach could be a platform for the rapid production, testing and application of transmissible defective interfering particles to combat infections by various human pathogenic RNA viruses.