Anticancer drug halts Ebola virus molecule
A team of scientists from the University of Oxford, UK, has mapped the structure of the Ebola virus (EBOV) molecule that leads to fatal infections in humans.
Using powerful X-rays produced at Diamond Light Source, researchers deciphered the complex molecular structure in its native state. Additionally, its structure when bound with toremifene, the anticancer drug, and ibuprofen was likewise solved.
There are no approved therapeutic drugs or vaccines available for Ebola. There is, however, a need to find compounds for drug development.
Professor Dave Stuart, research professor at the University of Oxford and Diamond Light Source, said: “Exploring the potential of drugs that are already licensed makes sense because they have already been through clinical trials, so the timeframe for bringing them to market is usually much quicker. A set of potential inhibitors for EBOV had been identified, including an anticancer drug toremifene and the painkiller ibuprofen; however, their mechanism of action was largely unknown …
“My group will be continuing this project at Diamond on the new XChem fragment screening facility, which should help us to further accelerate the rational drug design process. We hope this research will lead to new drugs that can help to save lives if we are faced with further outbreaks of the disease in the future.”
The research has been funded by the Medical Research Council, the UK government, the Nuffield Department of Medicine and the EU Framework Programme 7, which was the predecessor to the Horizon 2020 framework programme, amongst others.
The study, entitled ‘Toremifene interacts with and destabilises the Ebola virus glycoprotein’ has been published in the online journal Nature and can be accessed here.
