Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune have identified 150 possible inhibitors within the Nipah virus — giving them starting points for drugs to target for the currently untreatable disease.
“We conclude that it is highly likely that the proposed inhibitors would be potent against all strains of the virus Nipah and other related zoonotic viruses that pose a serious epidemic threat,” the researchers said. “Computational approaches can help identify and design inhibitors that could be rapidly tested or even deployed.”
Nipah virus is a high mortality virus capable of crossing to humans from bats and pigs. No licensed drugs are on the market for it, even though it was first identified in 1998, and the World Health Organization lists Nipah as one of eight categories of diseases that pose epidemic threats, and are therefore in need of prioritization. The Nipah virus has killed between 72 percent and 86 percent of those infected in Bangladesh and India.
While the overall number of deaths linked to each outbreak has never been more than 105, the disease still poses a deadly threat and could become pandemic.
This latest research, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, is being led by M.S. Madhusudhan. Working with 3D models of the nine Nipah virus proteins, the team proceeded to design inhibitory molecules capable of blocking those proteins’ actions. They then tested their efficacy against 15 strains of the virus. From this, they computationally identified the 150 inhibitors, with 13 noted as most-promising, due to a mix of binding strength, stability, and multi-strain efficacy.