The Technology:
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common viral infection in infants born in the United States (1 in 150 children). Infection in utero can lead to long term disabilities such as mental retardation and hearing loss. As CMV is a herpesvirus, it creates lifelong latent infections. CMV is common in adults, and in immunocompromised patients (especially after organ, stem cell, or bone marrow transplants) it can contribute to increased morbidity. The standard therapy for CMV infection is ganciclovir, but it is highly toxic. Like ganciclovir, the other major CMV drugs inhibit viral DNA polymerase. There is a need for new drugs with alternate mechanisms of action, especially as resistance to these traditional drugs develops.
Enveloped viruses like CMV use heparan sulfate proteoglycans expressed on the cell surface to attach to and infect cells of the human body. Researchers at the University of Tennessee have developed a class of peptides that specifically bind hypersulfated heparan sulfate proteoglycans. These peptides are capable of blocking (in vitro) the invasion and infection of CMV (and likely other viruses of this class) in mammalian cells. These peptides have no known bioactivity and display low non-specific binding to healthy tissues (in mice), potentially offering a less toxic alternative to ganciclovir.
Applications
• Therapeutic for treatment or prevention of enveloped virus infection
Benefits
• Peptides have no known bioactivity
• Little non-specific binding to healthy tissues
Patents
• US Patent 9,683,017
• US Patent 10,308,865