Among the most common viruses causing viral respiratory disease is the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), with the greatest burden of disease in infants and young children.

Many researchers have tried to reduce this burden via RSV vaccines and antivirals. Now, a new study, published online in the journal Viruses, describes the antiviral activity of the approved drug probenecid against this virus.

Introduction

RSV causes over 150,000 hospitalizations among children each year, and hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on healthcare expenditures due to this pathogen.

At present, only ribavirin and palivizumab are known to have any activity against RSV, that too with mixed results. In fact, the emergence of resistance mutations to the latter, which has to be given monthly by injection to high-risk infants throughout the RSV season, will reduce its efficacy considerably from the current 50% decrease in RSV-related infant hospitalizations.

Repurposing is an accepted approach whereby already approved drugs are successfully shown to be effective for another indication, cutting down on drug development costs and the timeline for approval and marketing. One way is to examine the pathways whereby viruses interact with their hosts, so as to identify druggable targets.

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