Viruses, not only the bad ones
Viruses have for decades been regarded as a growing danger to humanity’s health, and the current COVID-19 pandemic has further reinforced this vision.
However, a growing number of reports have demonstrated that viral weaponry can also be exploited for therapeutic applications. This consideration moved the scientific committee of the event “Viruses not only the bad ones” to organize a series of webinars which will bring us in a journey through the world of viruses. This journey will inform us about SARS-CoV-2 and other threatening viruses that could be responsible for new outbreaks but will be focused on the latest achievements in the application of viral technologies for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches.
We are sure to meet you and to talk in a novel way to make good science dissemination.
https://marinedrugs-1.sciforum.net/
ZOOM ID: 844 8085 5034
https://marinedrugs-2.sciforum.net/
ZOOM ID: 830 6658 8015
https://marinedrugs-3.sciforum.net/
ZOOM ID: 892 2248 5030
Locking forward to meeting you on the three lectures,
The Scientific Committee of ISSNP online seminars
Program
- July 10th h: 10.00 CET time:
Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Cerullo (Faculty of Pharmacy-Helsinki);
Subscribe Now!Oncolytic viruses (OVs) have recently re-gained a good momentum especially once understood their specific role in priming the immune system and their synergistic effect with other immunotherapies in particular with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). In fact, OVs interact with a plethora of pattern recognition receptors eliciting a strong immune response. The limitation is that the majority of such immune response is directed to the virus and only a small degree of it is directed to the tumor; we could almost say that the anti-tumor immune response we observed upon OVs treatment is a side effect of the anti-viral immune response. To overcome this problem and develop viruses that can direct the immune response towards specific tumor antigens and neo antigens we need to combine these antigens with the viruses. This is why we have developed a plug & play system that allows us to directly mount tumor-specific MHC-I restricted peptides onto the surface of the OVs. We have done it for oncolytic Adenovirus (we called this technology PeptiCrad) and for enveloped viruses such as vaccinia virus and herpes virus (we called this technology PeptiENV). We have demonstrated in several different murine models the efficacy of this methods to direct the immune response to a given peptide or sets of peptides. We have also demonstrated that you can use an hybrid system where viruses are coated with MHC-I and class -II restricted peptides and this effectively enhance the anti-tumor response. Finally, we have demonstrated that you can use this hybrid system to take advantage of pre-existing immunity to enhance cancer immunotherapy. We have further extended this technology to some intracellular bacteria. In addition, I will spend the last part of my talk introducing a fast-tumor antigen identification method that we have developed.
- July 17th h: 10.00 CET time:
Prof. Dr. Mark Brönstrup (Department of Chemical Biology-Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research);
Subscribe Now!Our efforts to generate novel antiviral lead substances through chemical biology methods will be highlighted. We will summarize the medical need for better treatment options against selected viral pathogens, and outline test capabilities and strategies at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI). Two antiviral lead compounds with broad spectrum activities will be presented in more detail, both discovered by phenotypic screening for antiviral activities without prior bias towards a specific target or mechanism of action. Such broad spectrum agents have a several potential advantages, as they can reduce treatment complexity in case of coinfections, and as they may show activity in case of novel or re-emerging viruses for which directly acting agents have not been developed yet. The first compound, the myxobacterial natural product soraphen A, interferes with the lipid metabolism of the host cell by inhibiting acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC). We will present mechanistic insights and experimental as well as modeled in vivo efficacy data. In the second part of the talk, the antiviral activity of labyrinthopeptins will be presented, that target evolutionary unrelated viruses like herpesviridae (HSV, CMV, KSHV), HIV, RSV, CHIKV or the flaviviruses DENV, ZIKV or WNV. Mechanistic studies through various chemical biology techniques demonstrated that labyrinthopeptins interact with lipid components of the viral surface, thereby inhibiting virus entry into target cells
- July 24 h: 10.00 CET time:
Dr. Laura Pandolfi (Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. Policlinico San Matteo Pavia).
Subscribe Now!Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread rapidly from Wuhan (China) reaching a pandemic proportion in March 2020. From December 2019, researchers and clinicians tried to find out the pathogenic features of the new disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, to develop an efficient therapy for patients. The typical clinical manifestations observed by clinicians were a severe interstitial pneumonia with an hyperactivation of the inflammatory cascade, with a progression to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
This lecture will discuss about the most important findings that allowed us to reach knowledge about SARS-CoV-2 from infection molecular mechanism to COVID-19 pathogenesis and the available therapeutic options.
Editors
Valeria COSTANTINO
President
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Giorgia Oliviero
-
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Mattia Mori
-
Università degli Studi di Siena
Daniele PASSARELLA
-
Università degli Studi di Milano