Deadly Virus Could Be Fought With Drug that Lowers Cholesterol

The hantavirus is a mysterious and lethal microorganism; a total of 30 cases occur in the United States each year. It suddenly appeared in the Southwest over 20 years ago in an outbreak that killed over a dozen people. The virus is considered extremely deadly, causing deaths in 30 to 40 percent of its cases.

Now, two students at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine may have found a way to fight this hantavirus through the use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins. The virus drastically affects four proteins that are key to cholesterol synthesis and uptake in the human body. That's why the scientists decided to take a closer look at cholesterol. They identified the host-cell genes that were required for viral replication through experimentation with the Andes virus in mammal cells. The Andes virus is a less dangerous virus that resembles characteristics of the hantavirus.

The students' research revealed that adequate cellular cholesterol levels are needed to transport the virus into the cell. They treated the cells with an experiment drug that targeted one of the four proteins affected by the virus. This showed less susceptibility of being infected when exposed to the virus. Additionally, the experimental drug was shown to lower cholesterol levels in the cell.

The researchers weren't done yet. Intrigued by their findings, they conducted an experiment that involved pre-treatment of human airway cells with mevastatin, a generic statin. The drug lowers the cell's cholesterol level without regulating any of the four proteins affected by the hantavirus and still showed that the airway cells are less susceptible to the Andes virus. One of the microbiologists, Paul Bates, PhD, experimented with the Andes virus in Penn's high-containment Biosafety Level (BSL)-3.

More molecular details are still being deciphered, but Bates believes that statins might soon be given to patients diagnosed with the hantavirus.

To read more about this study as well as the hantavirus, visit this EurekAlert article! and the journal PLOS Pathogens.