How do you develop medicines against future epidemics?

14 March 2025 Research news item

How do we protect ourselves from viruses that do not yet make people seriously ill, but have the potential to do so? Chemists from Radboud University are investigating this together with colleagues from eight different countries. ‘Who knows, we might even find something against the flu.’

Partly due to the coronavirus, researchers are convinced of the need to develop drugs at the earliest possible stage to prevent new pandemics. But how do you assess which viruses are threatening? And just as important: how do you develop a drug against those viruses?

Floris Rutjes, professor of organic chemistry, and his colleagues in the international research project SHIELD did not have to think about that first question. That selection had already been made by Horizon Europe, the project's financier. ‘We are going to look at diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, Lassa, and the West Nile virus. Viruses with a high pandemic potential.’

Searching for antiviral substances

Over the next few years, Rutjes and his colleagues Miriam Porzberg and Thomas Boltje will be searching for antiviral substances together with researchers from eight different countries. ‘In viral infections, there is a viral protein that ultimately causes cells to produce more viral proteins’, Rutjes explains. ‘Our goal is to find molecules that prevent these virus proteins from being equipped with a so-called sugar shield. Such a sugar shield ensures that the new virus proteins are not detectable by the immune system and are therefore not cleared up.’

The researchers will not develop a ready-made cure for dengue or Lassa fever, but as far as Rutjes is concerned, SHIELD has been a success if they discover some molecules that have the potential to thwart the build-up of this sugar shield and if it results in the virus proteins being recognised and broken down by the immune system. Success in this early stage, however, does not mean that it will lead top a drug. ‘Before a drug is brought to market, many clinical tests will have to take place, which requires years to complete.’

Although SHIELD is focusing on a select number of viruses, the researchers may also discover promising substances against other viruses. Rutjes points to the drug Paxlovid, which is now on the market against Covid-19. ‘That was developed based on a molecule that works against the SARS-CoV-1 virus. Antiviral substances can help against multiple viruses. Who knows, we might even find something that works against the flu virus.’

Not learned from Corona

The importance of this type of research has once again become clear due to corona. Yet Rutjes sees that we as a society have not learned much from the pandemic. ‘Nothing in our daily lives reminds us of Covid anymore. We have become less careful again.’ In addition, climate change is causing viruses to spread faster. ’Take the Asian tiger mosquito, which is increasingly common in Europe due to globalisation and rising temperatures and can carry viruses such as dengue.’

According to Rutjes, the question is therefore not whether, but when new viral epidemics will break out. ‘Whether it will be on the same scale as the Coronavirus is impossible to say, but the fact is that viruses require constant attention. Otherwise we will not win this battle.’

Contact information

Organizational unit: Faculty of Science
Theme: Molecules and materials, Health & Healthcare