Spotlight teams with researchers credited with breakthrough Zika drug findings

Spotlight Innovation (OTCQB: STLT) has entered into a sponsored research agreement with Florida State University (FSU) to support research directed by FSU Professor Hengli Tang aimed at developing safe and effective drugs to treat patients infected with Zika virus.

Led by a team including Prof Tang, Professor of Biological Science at Florida State University, Guo-Li Ming of Johns Hopkins and Hongjun Song of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the scientists found two classes of drugs  - one that hinders replication of the virus and another that prevents it from killing brain cells – as having promise in treating Zika.

According to a report from Zacks Equity Research, they further identified that niclosamide, an already available drug used to fight tapeworm (and which has also shown promise against MRSA), as a potentially effective in suppressing Zika replication,  that has also been shown to be safe for pregnant women, an important attribute given Zika’s association with severe birth defects.  Another compound, emricasan, which is being evaluated by Conatus Pharmaceuticals for the treatment of liver disease, was found to prevent Zika from killing brain cells.

Prof Tang is an accomplished virologist whose research has been published in prominent academic journals including Cell and Journal of Virology. In March 2016, Prof Tang co-authored a study published in Cell Stem Cell that demonstrated for the first time the ability of the Zika virus (ZIKV) to target human embryonic cortical neural progenitor cells. After infecting these crucial brain development cells, the virus replicates and interferes with cell growth, function and viability. ZIKV infection in pregnant women can cause neurological birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which a child is born with an abnormally small head as a result of incomplete brain development.