Viral chemokine antagonists

Another potentially useful direction in therapeutics is to develop the viral chemokine antagonists and scavengers reviewed above, which may be best suited as topical agents or single administration agents for acute inflammation, such as occurs after angioplasty. 

DeBruyne LA, Li K, Bishop DK et al. Gene transfer of virally encoded chemokine antagonists vMIP-II and MC148 prolongs cardiac allograft survival and inhibits donor-specific immunity. Gene Ther 2000 7 575-582. 

Agonistic and Antagonistic Activities of Viral Chemokine Ligands... 

Dairaghi DJ. HHV8-encoded vMIP-I selectively engages chemokine receptor CCR8. Agonist and antagonist profiles of viral chemokines. J Biol Chem 1999 274(31) 21569-74. 

Zhou N, Luo Z, Luo J et al. A novel peptide antagonist of CXCR4 derived from the N-terminus of viral chemokine vMIP-II. Biochemistry 2000 39(13) 3782-7. 

Chemokine CCR5 receptor antagonists vicriviroc and mamviroc prevent viral entry into white blood cells. They are, respectively, undergoing Phase II and Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of HIV infection as part of polytherapies. ... 

Inhibitors of translation of viral mRNA (antisense oligonucleotides) Inhibitors of posttranslational glycosylation Antagonists of chemokine receptors... 

Virally encoded chemokines have also been discovered, in several herpesviruses (e.g. HHV-8, mouse cytomegalovirus) and in molluscum conta-giosum virus (MCV), a human poxvirus which causes the skin disease molluscum contagiosum. Interestingly, broad-spectrum chemokine receptor antagonist activity has been reported for several of these molecules, including vMIP-II of HHV-8 and MC148R of... 

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