Common Generic Drug May Cure Ebola

PHARMACY TIMES   by Monica V. Mahoney, Pharms D, -BCPS-AQ ID                                            Jan. 15, 2015

Several antibody-mediated, antiviral-focused, and vaccine-derived approaches are currently being investigated, but a major setback to many of these modalities is the time it takes to produce the interventions.

For example, ZMapp takes weeks to grow in a nicotine plant, and vaccines require adequate time for growth. Consequently, some investigators have turned to readily available medications that do not seem to have any antiviral activity at first glance.
 
One of these medications is amiodarone, a Class III antiarrhythmic agent that noncompetitively inhibits adrenergic stimulation and multiple ion channels while prolonging the action potential and refractory period in myocardial fibers.² In a 2014 in vitro study, amiodarone was found to strongly inhibit the entry of the Ebola virus and other filoviruses into host cells.³ While this process is not completely understood, the authors proposed 2 potential mechanisms for this inhibition....

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