Screening of FDA-Approved Drugs for Treatment of Emerging Pathogens

The current outbreaks of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Ebolavirus (EboV) have revealed a gap in the development and availability of drugs to treat these infections. To date, there are no approved treatments for patients infected with MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV), a virus that continues to infect new patients and that has now spread from the Middle East to Asia. Despite a downward trend in the number of new EboV cases in West Africa, new infections are still occurring, and many patients continue to suffer from this illness. People infected with MERS and Ebola viruses receive only supportive care in hopes of recovery. Investigation into repurposing drugs approved by the FDA is gaining interest. To identify better treatment strategies, several groups have used drug screens to repurpose FDA-approved drugs as inhibitors of MERS-CoV and EboV.