WIKIPEDIA, BLAUPAUSE
The rapid spread of the Ebola epidemic has long outpaced the typical drug development pipeline. To keep up, some researchers have turned to screening drugs already approved by regulatory bodies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This week (June 3) in Science Translational Medicine, one group reported two promising hits: an antidepressant, sertraline (Zoloft), and a calcium channel blocker, bepridil (Vascor). Both drugs prevented Ebola infection of human cells in vitro and significantly lengthened the survival of infected mice.
Researchers from the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the University of Virginia, and Horizon Discovery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, identified the two drugs in a screen of more than 2,600 FDA-approved compounds. Of these compounds, 171 were selected for their ability to ...
