Stanford study reveals drug combination shows efficacy against dengue fever, Ebola virus in mice

During a recent Stanford University School of Medicine study, a combination of two cancer drugs inhibited both dengue fever and Ebola virus infections in mice subjects, despite the viruses being so different from one another.

Results of the study were published in the Feb. 27 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The specific drug combination, erlotinib and sunitinib, previously showed efficacy against hepatitis C virus, West Nile, and Zika virus in laboratory dish experiments.

For their experiment in mice, the researchers administered the two drugs once daily starting the day of dengue infection. Then they administered both drugs for five days at doses comparable to those for use in humans with cancer. The control group mice subsequently died between four and eight days after infection, however, the treated group was able to survive and regain their pre-infection weight and mobility. The researchers noted the drugs were considerably less effective if administered individually.

In another study, the researchers found that the drug combination retained substantial antiviral efficacy as long as it was administered less than 48 hours after infection.

In an experiment involving Ebola virus, the drugs were administered once daily for 10 days starting approximately six hours prior to infection. Approximately 90 percent of the control group died, but half the mice receiving the combination survived.

“We’ve shown that a single combination of drugs can be effective across a broad range of viruses, even when those viruses hail from widely separated branches of the evolutionary tree,” Shirit Einav, senior author of the study and assistant professor of infectious diseases, said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Department of Defense, various Stanford-related organizations, and the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology.