Ebola virus interplay with host innate immune system as a target for therapeutics against Ebola Virus Disease Enzo Tramontano Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Biomedical Section, Dept. of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. Ebola Virus (EBOV) is the etiological agent of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), a severe hemorrhagic fever in humans with case fatality rates of up to 90%, for which there are currently neither licensed vaccines nor antivirals available. Since its original identification, EVD has been rare and endemic in the Sub-Saharan Africa, even though it has re-emerged in the last decade with an increase of its geographical incidence and human outbreaks episodes. Since early 2014, the greatest EVD outbreak is on-going in 4 western Africa countries with more than 8500 deaths and more than 22000 cases, confirming that EBOV epidemics are highly unpredictable. The high EVD lethality has been related to the virus ability to efficiently suppress the host innate immune response, which begins with the recognition of viral dsRNA, a replicative intermediate, by the cytoplasmic pattern recognition receptor RIG-I that induces type I interferon (IFN) response. This recognition is prevented by the dsRNA binding properties of the EBOV VP35 protein that mimics RIG-I 5’-triphosphate (5’ppp) dsRNA ends recognition. EBOV VP35 also interferes with the activation of IRF-3 and inhibits PACTinduced RIG-I ATPase activity, preventing PACT interaction with and activation of RIG-I, allowing EBOV to evade innate immunity activation. EBOV VP35 is a crucial determinant of EBOV virulence and pathogenesis and, in fact, mutations in VP35 dsRNA binding domain that reduce its IFN-antagonist capabilities are associated to loss of EBOV virulence. Considered the importance of the interplay between EBOV and innate immune system activation, it is possible to develop therapeutic agents targeting either EBOV components that hide the virus to the innate immune system, or innate immune system components to trigger an efficacious immune response overcoming the virus action. Given the specificity EBOV VP35 recognition of viral 5'-ppp dsRNA end-capping, also showed by crystallographic studies, we are currently pursuing VP35 dsRNA binding as target for drug design. To this aim we i) established novel methods measuring VP35 ability to bind dsRNA in vitro and determined its kinetic parameters; ii) established a new luciferase reporter gene assay assessing EBOV VP35 inhibition of RIG-I-mediated IFN-β induction by viral dsRNA; iii) performed site directed mutagenesis studies investigating the role of single VP35 amino acid residues involved in the 5'-ppp dsRNA end-cap binding; iv) defined critical amino acid residues describing a pocket in the VP35 dsRNA domain that can be exploited as target for development of antiviral agents.
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