Anti-Ebola Virus, VP40 (EB-979) (E163-GRP)

Ebola virus is a highly infectious and deadly enveloped RNA virus that belongs to the Filoviridae family. It causes severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates. Ebola is considered endemic in certain parts of Africa where outbreaks have occurred in various countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Libera, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. VP40 is a matrix protein of Ebola virus that is the most abundantly expressed viral protein during infection. The protein plays an important role in viral assembly and budding with exogenous expression of VP40 being sufficient to induce the formation of viral-like particles. VP40 can oligomerize and the different oligomeric states have distinct functions during infection the octameric confirmation plays a critical role in regulating viral transcription while hexamers localize to the plasma membrane. Because of its critical role in the viral life cycle and abundance, VP40 has been used in diagnostic testing as well as potential therapeutics.