Antisense DNA Inhibition of Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a pneumovirus of the paramyxovirus family, is the most important viral agent of pediatric respiratory tract disease. RSV has a global distribution and essentially everyone becomes infected early in life. Epidemics occur each year and in many areas RSV surpasses other microbial agents as a cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants less than one year of age. The morbidity and mortality associated with RSV is attributable to the lack of an effective vaccine and adequate therapies. To address the need for new antiviral compounds, approaches for inhibiting RSV replication with antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotides will be explored. A panel of phosphorothioate oligonucleotides complementary to the 5'-termini of the ten major RSV mRNAs will be synthesized and tested in vitro for their antiviral activity against two distantly-related RSV strains.