Targeted Therapy of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in African Green Monkeys by Intranasally Administered 2-5A Antisense

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-5-2002

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of respiratory disease in infants, young children, immunocompromised patients, and the institutionalized elderly. Previous work had shown that RNase L, an antiviral enzyme of the interferon system, could be recruited to cleave RSV genomic RNA by attaching tetrameric 2′-5′-linked oligoadenylates (2-5A) to an oligonucleotide complementary to repetitive gene-start sequences within the RSV genome (2-5A antisense). A 2′-O-methyl RNA-modified analog of the lead 2-5A anti-RSV chimera is shown here to have enhanced antiviral activity in cell culture studies while also cleaving RSV genomic RNA in an RNase L- and sequence-specific manner. When administered intranasally to RSV-infected African green monkeys, this chimera reduced nasal RSV replication by up to four log10 units in a dose- and time-dependent manner.

DOI

10.1006/viro.2001.1213

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