Research project Non-coding oligonucleotides as broad-spectrum antiviral treatment

The long-term goal is to develop a treatment with broad antiviral effectiveness. We will here focus on a clinically highly relevant pandemic infection: respiratory syncytium virus (RSV). The disease state caused by infections results from viral virulence and/or immunopathology. Therefore, the most effective approach to manage infectious diseases is to combine inhibition of microbial invasion and preventing inappropriate immune responses. We have identified non-coding single-stranded oligonucleotides (ssON), which exhibit potent antiviral and immune modulatory activities both in vitro and in vivo in a RSV challenge model.

We will elucidate early in vivo events occurring in RSV infected mice by using spatial transcriptomics and in situ hybridization techniques as well as histology and flow cytometry. The data will provide further understanding of events taking place in vivo after RSV infection locally in the lungs and gain new knowledge about immune responses generated and their spatial organization. The expected results will provide a strong background for further clinical development of ssON.