The FDA-Approved Oral Drug Nitazoxanide Amplifies Host Antiviral Responses and Inhibits Ebola Virus

Jasenosky, Luke D.; Cadena, Cristhian; Mire, Chad E.; Borisevich, Viktoriya; Haridas, Viraga; Ranjbar, Shahin; Nambu, Aya; Bavari, Sina; Soloveva, Veronica; Sadukhan, Supriya; Cassell, Gail H.; Geisbert, Thomas W.; Hur, Sun; Goldfeld, Anne E.

Although NTZ is FDA approved for the treatment of cryptosporidial diarrhea and is a well-tolerated medication, a limitation of the data presented here regarding NTZ's inhibition of EBOV is that it is based on in vitro studies and we have not yet established NTZ's efficacy against EBOV in an in vivo animal model. Furthermore, the detailed investigation of NTZ's upstream target in the regulation of the immune responses described here is outside the scope of this article and will be the subject of future studies, as will in vivo testing of NTZ against EBOV.