TKM-Ebola was an experimental

antiviral drug Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used for treating viral infections. Most antivirals target specific viruses, while a broad-spectrum antiviral is effective against a wide range of viruses. Unlike most antibiotics, antiviral drugs do n ...

for

Ebola disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after bec ...

that was developed by

Arbutus Biopharma Arbutus Biopharma Corporation is a publicly traded Canadian (NASDAQ: ABUS) biopharmaceutical company with an expertise in liposomal drug delivery and RNA interference, and is developing drugs for hepatitis B infection. It is headquartered in Va ...

(formerly Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp.) in Vancouver, Canada. The drug candidate was formerly known as Ebola-SNALP. TKM-Ebola is a combination of

small interfering RNA Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded RNA at first non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20-24 (normally 21) base pairs in length, similar to MicroRNA, miRNA, and op ...

s targeting three of the seven proteins in

Ebola virus ''Zaire ebolavirus'', more commonly known as Ebola virus (; EBOV), is one of six known species within the genus '' Ebolavirus''. Four of the six known ebolaviruses, including EBOV, cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and o ...

: Zaire Ebola L polymerase, Zaire Ebola membrane-associated protein (VP24), and Zaire Ebola polymerase complex protein (VP35).David Kroll for Forbes. 7 August 201
FDA Moves On Tekmira's Ebola Drug While Sarepta's Sits Unused
/ref> By down-regulating these three proteins, TKM-Ebola inhibits virus replication and eliminates the infection. The drug was effective in rhesus monkeys infected with Ebola. After the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, the new variant responsible for it was isolated from several Ebola virus families and the specific genomic sequence was determined. The company re-designed TKM-Ebola and renamed it as "TKM-Ebola-Guinea". In January 2014, Tekmira started a Phase I clinical trial of TKM-Ebola to assess its safety in healthy people with a dose of 0.24 mg/kg/day for seven day treatments. The FDA placed the trial on clinical hold in July 2014 to assess results, after some subjects had flu-like responses. In August, the FDA changed the status to "partial hold", allowing the drug to be used under expanded access in people infected with Ebola but with the Phase I trial still suspended. In April 2015 the FDA allowed the study to resume at a lower dose. A Phase II trial started on 11 March 2015 in Sierra Leone, West Africa and stopped enrolling new subjects on 19 June 2015 after it appeared not to work. In July 2015 the company announced it was changing its name to Arbutus, suspending development of the drug for Ebola and changing its focus to developing treatments for

hepatitis B virus ''Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) is a partially double-stranded DNA virus, a species of the genus '' Orthohepadnavirus'' and a member of the '' Hepadnaviridae'' family of viruses. This virus causes the disease hepatitis B. Disease Despite there b ...

.Lisa Schnirring for CIDRAP News. Jul 20, 201
Experimental Ebola drug shelved; study explores virus clearance
/ref>

References

Antiviral drugs Ebola Abandoned drugs {{immunology-stub

See also

References