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Arenaviruses and Lethal Mutagenesis. Prospects for New Ribavirin-based Interventions.

Authors :
Moreno, Héctor
Grande-Pérez, Ana
Domingo, Esteban
Martín, Verónica
Source :
Viruses (1999-4915); Nov2012, Vol. 4 Issue 11, p2786-2805, 20p, 2 Charts, 1 Graph
Publication Year :
2012

Abstract

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) has contributed to unveil some of the molecular mechanisms of lethal mutagenesis, or loss of virus infectivity due to increased mutation rates. Here we review these developments, and provide additional evidence that ribavirin displays a dual mutagenic and inhibitory activity on LCMV that can be relevant to treatment designs. Using 5-fluorouracil as mutagenic agent and ribavirin either as inhibitor or mutagen, we document an advantage of a sequential inhibitor-mutagen administration over the corresponding combination treatment to achieve a low LCMV load in cell culture. This advantage is accentuated in the concentration range in which ribavirin acts mainly as an inhibitor, rather than as mutagen. This observation reinforces previous theoretical and experimental studies in supporting a sequential inhibitor-mutagen administration as a possible antiviral design. Given recent progress in the development of new inhibitors of arenavirus replication, our results suggest new options of ribavirin-based anti-arenavirus treatments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19994915
Volume :
4
Issue :
11
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Viruses (1999-4915)
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
83706500
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/v4112786