ViraSense™ Screening Assay
ViraSense™ Screening Assay
Viral infections of the CNS can be caused by a variety of viruses. The two most important diseases are viral meningitis and viral encephalitis. To date, some of these viral infections of the CNS are not treatable.
Our ViraSense technology can be applied to identify new lead compounds to treat specific viral infections as well as clinical drug resistance testing in the context of such infections.
ViraSense for High-Throughput Screening
For pharmaceutical companies, ViraSense represents a promising tool to accelerate high-throughput screening projects aiming to identify novel lead candidates. SIRION offers this novel AAV-based platform screening assay in collaboration and for licensing.
The ViraSense platform is capable of determining the effectiveness of a given compound against a variety of human viruses:
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Human Adenoviruses
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HSV-1
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HSV-2
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HCMV
ViraSense can potentially be extended to other human DNA viruses with AAV helper function (HPV16, VZV, human herpesviruses HHV6, 7).
This technology facilitates and accelerates evaluation of new compounds within primary and secondary compound screening. Its benefits are:
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Parallel screening of multiple compounds on one plate
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Lower costs compared with e.g. PCR,
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No need for PCR or assay optimization,
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No need to label cells or viruses
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Can be used for a variety of viruses and is not sensitive to virus mutations.
Furthermore, SIRION has established an academic clinical network providing access to clinical virus strains that can be used in this assay.
ViraSense for Resistance Testing and Diagnostics
We established a diagnostic protocol for use of ViraSense with Prof. Hengel from the German Reference Center for Herpes Viruses. Using this technology, rapid evaluation of resistance to antiviral drugs can be established, especially for HSV-1 and CMV. A phenotypic diagnostic test for drug resistance testing for HSV1, and HCMV is currently being implemented at the official German consulting laboratory for herpes viruses at University Clinic Freiburg.
Licensing information
If you are interested in this technology, please get in touch with our Business Development and Licensing team at: licensing@sirion-biotech.com or use our contact form.