High-Dose Mannose-Binding Lectin Therapy for Ebola Virus Infection

Michelow, Ian C.; Lear, Calli; Scully, Corinne; Prugar, Laura I.; Longley, Clifford B.; Yantosca, L. Michael; Ji, Xin; Karpel, Marshall; Brudner, Matthew; Takahashi, Kazue; Spear, Gregory T.; Ezekowitz, R. Alan B.; Schmidt, Emmett V.; Olinger, Gene G.

In the past 3 decades, approved antivirals have increased from a few nucleoside analogues to well over 40 drugs [13] . The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemics particularly drove antiviral discovery toward rationally designed drugs targeting specific viral enzymes. Although this approach was remarkably effective, the advent of newly emerging or drug-resistant viruses that threaten humans calls for the development of more broadly active agents targeting viral components shared among viruses. N-glycosylation of viral envelopes is an important such target shared between influenza, HIV, HCV, West Nile virus, SARS-CoV, Hendra virus, Nipah virus, and filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg viruses) [7] . To assess one possible strategy against N-glycosylated viruses, we tested a stringent Ebola virus infection model (3000 3 LD 50 ) in mice.