Teaching an old drug new tricks to fight cytomegalovirus
Emetime appears to stop replication of a herpesvirus
Date:
June 27, 2016
Source:
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Summary:
An old drug once mostly used to treat amebiasis -- a disease caused by a parasite -- and induce vomiting in cases of poisoning appears to also halt replication of cytomegalovirus (CMV), a herpesvirus that can cause serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, including those with HIV or organ transplant recipients, report researchers.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that an old drug once mostly used to treat amebiasis -- a disease caused by a parasite -- and induce vomiting in cases of poisoning appears to also halt replication of cytomegalovirus (CMV), a herpesvirus that can cause serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, including those with HIV or organ transplant recipients.
A report on the finding, made in test tube and mice studies, is published in the June 23 PLOS Pathogens and could potentially offer a much-needed tool to inhibit CMV, the investigators say.
Most people worldwide permanently harbor CMV, which causes no symptoms in the healthy. However, for those with a challenged or compromised immune system, the virus can cause diseases affecting multiple organs, such as the liver gut, lungs and brain. CMV is also the most common congenital infection passed from mother to child, leading to significant birth defects, such as microcephaly, hearing loss and other neurodevelopmental problems...
