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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, January 2000, p. 78-87, Vol. 44, No. 1
0066-4804/0/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Zanamivir Susceptibility Monitoring and
Characterization of Influenza Virus Clinical Isolates Obtained during
Phase II Clinical Efficacy Studies
J. M.
Barnett,1
A.
Cadman,1
D.
Gor,1
M.
Dempsey,1
M.
Walters,1
A.
Candlin,1
M.
Tisdale,1,*
P. J.
Morley,2
I. J.
Owens,2
R. J.
Fenton,2
A. P.
Lewis,3
E. C. J.
Claas,4
G. F.
Rimmelzwaan,4
R.
De
Groot,5 and
A. D. M. E.
Osterhaus6
Clinical Virology
Unit,1 Systems Biology
Unit,2 and Advanced Technology and
Informatics Unit,3 Glaxo Wellcome Medicines
Research Centre, Stevenage, United Kingdom, and University
Hospital Dijkzigt,4 Sophias
Children's Hospital,5 and Erasmus
University,6 Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Received 8 June 1999/Returned for modification 12 August
1999/Accepted 18 October 1999
Zanamivir is a highly selective neuraminidase (NA) inhibitor with
demonstrated clinical efficacy against influenza A and B virus
infections. In phase II clinical efficacy trials (NAIB2005 and
NAIB2008), virological substudies showed mean reductions in virus
shedding after 24 h of treatment of 1.5 to 2.0 log10
50% tissue culture infective doses compared to a placebo, with no reemergence of virus after the completion of therapy. Paired isolates (n = 41) obtained before and during therapy with zanamivir
demonstrated no shifts in susceptibility to zanamivir when measured by
NA assays, although for a few isolates NA activity was too low to
evaluate. In plaque reduction assays in MDCK cells, the susceptibility
of isolates to zanamivir was extremely variable even at baseline and
did not correlate with the speed of resolution of virus shedding. Isolates with apparent limited susceptibility to zanamivir by plaque
reduction proved highly susceptible in vivo in the ferret model.
Further sequence analysis of paired isolates revealed no changes in the
hemagglutinin and NA genes in the majority of isolates. The few changes
observed were all natural variants. No amino acid changes that had
previously been identified in vitro as being involved with reduced
susceptibility to zanamivir were observed. These studies highlighted
problems associated with monitoring susceptibility to NA inhibitors in
the clinic, in that no reliable cell-based assay is available. At
present the NA assay is the best available predictor of susceptibility
to NA inhibitors in vivo, as measured in the validated ferret model of infection.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Clinical
Virology Unit, Glaxo Wellcome Medicines Research Centre, Stevenage,
Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. Phone: 44(0) 1438764196. Fax:
44(0) 1438764263. E-mail: smt40154{at}glaxowellcome.co.uk.
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, January 2000, p. 78-87, Vol. 44, No. 1
0066-4804/0/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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