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Review
. 2023 Jan 3;15(1):146.
doi: 10.3390/v15010146.

Combating Lassa Fever in West African Sub-Region: Progress, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Chinyere Aloke  1   2 , Nwogo Ajuka Obasi  2 , Patrick Maduabuchi Aja  3   4   5 , Chinedum Uche Emelike  6 , Chinedu Ogbonnia Egwu  2 , Olamide Jeje  1 , Chuks Oswald Edeogu  7 , Olalekan Olugbenga Onisuru  1 , Obasi Uche Orji  3 , Ikechukwu Achilonu  1
Affiliations
Review

Combating Lassa Fever in West African Sub-Region: Progress, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Chinyere Aloke et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Lassa fever (LF) is a rodent-borne disease that threatens human health in the sub-region of West Africa where the zoonotic host of Lassa virus (LASV) is predominant. Currently, treatment options for LF are limited and since no preventive vaccine is approved for its infectivity, there is a high mortality rate in endemic areas. This narrative review explores the transmission, pathogenicity of LASV, advances, and challenges of different treatment options. Our findings indicate that genetic diversity among the different strains of LASV and their ability to circumvent the immune system poses a critical challenge to the development of LASV vaccines/therapeutics. Thus, understanding the biochemistry, physiology and genetic polymorphism of LASV, mechanism of evading host immunity are essential for development of effective LASV vaccines/therapeutics to combat this lethal viral disease. The LASV nucleoprotein (NP) is a novel target for therapeutics as it functions significantly in several aspects of the viral life cycle. Consequently, LASV NP inhibitors could be employed as effective therapeutics as they will potentially inhibit LASV replication. Effective preventive control measures, vaccine development, target validation, and repurposing of existing drugs, such as ribavirin, using activity or in silico-based and computational bioinformatics, would aid in the development of novel drugs for LF management.

Keywords: Lassa fever; Lassa virus; nucleoprotein; ribavirin; target validation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Morbidity and mortality rate in West Africa from 2016–2021 [28,63].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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