Evaluation of Fendiline Treatment in VP40 System with Nucleation-Elongation Process: A Computational Model of Ebola Virus Matrix Protein Assembly.

EBOV infection can cause deadly hemorrhagic fever, which has a mortality rate around 90% without treatment. The recent outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo illustrate its treat to human health. Though two antibody-based treatments are approved, mortality rates in the last outbreak is still higher than 30%. This can partly be due to the requirement of advanced medical facilities for current treatments. As a result, it is very important to develop and evaluate new therapies for EBOV infection, especially those can be easily applied in the developing world. The significance of our research is that we evaluate the potential treatment effect of fendiline on EBOV infection in the VP40 system with a computational approach, which both greatly saves time and lowers cost compared to traditional experimental studies, and provides innovative new tools to study viral protein dynamics.