Efficacy of CMX001 as a Prophylactic and Presymptomatic Antiviral Agent in New Zealand White Rabbits Infected with Rabbitpox Virus, a Model for Orthopoxvirus Infections of Humans

Viruses

Amanda D. Rice¹  Mathew M. Adams¹  Bernhard Lampert¹  Scott Foster¹  Randall Lanier¹  Alice Robertson¹  George Painter¹ 

[1] ¹Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of Florida, 1600 SW Archer Rd, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA ²Chimerix, Inc., 2505 Meridian Parkway Suite, 340 Durham, NC 27713, USA

关键词: CMX001;    poxvirus;    smallpox treatment;    antiviral;    rabbitpox;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v3020063

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

CMX001, a lipophilic nucleotide analog formed by covalently linking 3‑(hexdecyloxy)propan-1-ol to cidofovir (CDV), is being developed as a treatment for smallpox. CMX001 has dramatically increased potency versus CDV against all dsDNA viruses and, in contrast to CDV, is orally available and has shown no evidence of nephrotoxicity in healthy volunteers or severely ill transplant patients to date. Although smallpox has been eliminated from the environment, treatments are urgently being sought due to the risk of smallpox being used as a bioterrorism agent and for monkeypox virus, a zoonotic disease of Africa, and adverse reactions to smallpox virus vaccinations. In the absence of human cases of smallpox, new treatments must be tested for efficacy in animal models. Here we first review and discuss the rabbitpox virus (RPV) infection of New Zealand White rabbits as a model for smallpox to test the efficacy of CMX001 as a prophylactic and early disease antiviral. Our results should also be applicable to monkeypox virus infections and for treatment of adverse reactions to smallpox vaccination.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.