Primary human intestinal organoids model enteric infection of monkeypox virus and enable scalable drug discovery - PubMed
4 hours ago
- #Antiviral drug discovery
- #Monkeypox virus
- #Intestinal organoids
- Monkeypox virus (MPXV) can directly infect the human intestine and cause lesions, modeling enteric symptoms like diarrhea.
- Primary human intestinal organoids from ileum and rectum support productive infections by MPXV clades IIb, Ia, and Ib.
- A scalable drug screening using these organoids identified 12 safe-in-human antiviral candidates, including clofarabine.
- Clofarabine showed potent anti-MPXV activity across clades Ia, Ib, and IIb in both intestinal and skin organoids.
- The organoid model and drug discovery pipeline aid in understanding mpox manifestations and preparing for poxvirus outbreaks.