The European Commission has announced that the European Innovation Council will support an innovative Portuguese project in the area of the fight against highly dangerous viruses with 4.2 million euros. The NOVIRUSES2BRAIN project is led by Researcher and iMM/FMUL teacher Miguel Castanho, in collaboration with a Spanish university (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona) a Brazilian university (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and also a German company (Synovo Gmbh, Tübingen). Miguel Castanho and his Laboratory will receive a total of 2.1 million euros.

We spoke with the head of this research study and we asked him to comment on yet another piece of excellent news regarding his work. “This funding is very important for several reasons. The most important of all is the nature of the competition, which was aimed at developing bold, unconventional ideas, which generate innovative solutions to objective problems. We were selected thanks to the innovative character of our ideas. We thought outside the box, as they say. Secondly, this is a considerable amount of funding achieved in a very competitive European competition, which demonstrates the scientific strength and capacity of the iMM-FMUL partnership. Thirdly, because this is the work of an international consortium (Portugal, Spain, Germany, Brazil), but the leadership is ours. We shaped the project, looked for partners, and made it happen. Lastly, because it is a recognition of merit, which is always reinvigorating in an exhausting profession, subject to numerous instabilities, as is that of a researcher. And this merit extends to all those working in the IMM and FMUL for the greater good at all levels without exception, from research laboratories to administrative and technical management.”

Miguel Castanho and the teams that have partnered with him in this project aim at developing an intelligent drug that is able to simultaneously deactivate several types of viruses capable of lodging in the Central Nervous System and causing neurological complications. These viruses include Measles, HIV, Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya. The latter two are latent threats in Portugal because they are spread by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes, , already settled on the island of Madeira and recently found in mainland Portugal. On the other hand, there might be another outbreak of the Dengue virus on the island of Madeira, which may spread to mainland Portugal

Viruses that infect the brain and other parts of the central nervous system are a major worldwide threat. The latest large-scale threat in this area was the outbreak of the Zika virus in South America which, like the Dengue virus or the Chikungunya virus, is transmitted mainly by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes. When a pregnant woman is infected, the virus is able to cross the placental barrier between mother and fetus and then the protective blood-brain barrier of the central nervous system of the fetus, causing microcephaly and other neurological disorders in newborns. Recent news also point to new cases of Zika in Africa; according to a Reuters report published in the Público newspaper, 72 babies were born with microcephaly in Angola between February 2017 and May 2018. It is feared that the Zika virus strain responsible for more than 3,700 cases of birth defects in Brazil since 2015 may give rise to a new strain, predominant in Angola.

Despite the high likelihood of co-infections with Aedes-born viruses, such as the Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya viruses, because several viral species coexist in the same vector, the classical drug development strategies ignore that reality. In addition, additional co-infections with HIV and measles virus are also possible. There is a pressing need for a drug that is capable of neutralising a very broad spectrum of viral species simultaneously.

Learn all about this and other projects:

https://imm.medicina.ulisboa.pt/pt/investigacao/laboratorios/castanho-lab/