Experimental Ebola treatment boosts survival in mice

Bogdan A. Solaja, Rekha G. Panchal and colleagues note that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any therapeutic drugs or vaccines against the Ebola virus that, since December 2013, has infected more than 25,000 people and taken the lives of more than 10,000. While some researchers are developing vaccines to prevent Ebola infections, others are focusing on treatments for the disease.

They are investigating a number of compounds, including existing malaria and flu drugs. Solaja's team has been looking into possible treatments by studying a class of small molecules called diazachrysenes, which they've found in lab tests to be non-toxic and effective against the most potent bacterial toxin, botulinum neurotoxin. They wanted to screen this family of compounds for possible anti-Ebola drug candidates.

The researchers narrowed down their search to a handful of diazachrysenes. In their study, 70 to 90 percent of the mice that received one of three of the experimental compounds survived infection and didn't show any obvious side effects.