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Anti-infectives

Targeting SARS

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 2, page 686 (2004)Cite this article

The only available therapy for SARS-CoV is a combination of ribavirin and corticosteroids, which is effective — but only at concentrations that produce severe side effects. Since SARS was first isolated in 2002, it has caused more than 700 deaths worldwide, so finding effective antivirals for SARS is a priority.

High-throughput screening requires a simple and reliable assay system. Wu et al. used a cell-based assay to screen more than 10,000 compounds, all administered at 10 μM, for inhibition of virus cytopathic effects. From this primary screen, 50 compounds were selected for further analysis, first to determine if the compounds were cytotoxic and second to measure the concentration of the compound required to inhibit virus replication by 50% (EC50).

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Wu, C. -Y. et al. Small molecules targeting severe acute respiratory syndrome human coronavirus. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 10012–10017 (2004)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Stadler, K. et al. SARS — beginning to understand a new virus. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 1, 209–218 (2003)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Susan Jones
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Jones, S. Targeting SARS. Nat Rev Microbiol 2, 686 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro985

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