Gilead Sciences’ Sovaldi (sofosbuvir)WIKIMEDIA, INSOMNIAC70The World Health Organization (WHO) in February declared Zika virus infection a public health emergency of international concern. In Brazil, one of the areas hardest hit by the ongoing outbreak, perhaps the most threatening aspect of Zika virus transmission has been its association with microcephaly and other abnormalities of the central nervous system in fetuses whose mothers were infected during pregnancy.
Because there is not yet an available vaccine, researchers have been looking for drugs presenting anti-Zika proprieties that are safe to give to pregnant women who live in high-risk areas. In a May preprint, a team led by researchers at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro showed that the antimalarial drug chloroquine reduced Zika virus infection of human cells in vitro. Now, in a study led by Caroline Sacramento and colleagues at the Rio-based Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, researchers have reported that the urudine nucleotide analogue sofosbuvir showed anti-Zika activity in three cell lines—a neuroblastoma cell line (SH-SY5Y), and two nonhuman kidney cell lines (BHK-21 and Vero). Sofosbuvir is approved for the treatment of hepatitis C and is not considered to be teratogenic. The team’s results ...
