ImQuest presents data on the anti-hepatitis B virus activity of Pyrimidinediones

ImQuest Life Sciences today presented important new results on the continued development of the pyrimidinedione small molecules as antiviral agents at the 13th International Symposium on Viral Hepatitis and Liver Disease meeting held last week in Washington D.C.

ImQuest's screening efforts have identified ten pyrimidinediones as inhibitors of HBV replication, with two compounds yielding potent inhibition of HBV replication at sub-micromolar concentration levels. The two lead molecules, IQP-0568 and IQP-0589 have also been shown to be active non-nucleoside inhibitors of HIV replication, but inactive against a panel of other RNA and DNA viruses, suggesting specificity for antiviral activity against viruses that encode a reverse transcriptase. These studies provide a fundamental structural basis for the development of first in class non-nucleoside inhibitors of HBV replication. The data were presented by Todd B. Parsley, Ph.D., Director of Hepatitis Virus Research as a component of a session entitled, "Experimental Approaches to Therapy of HBV." The studies included ImQuest co-authors Lu Yang, MD and Robert W. Buckheit, Jr., Ph.D.

"These results reveal the potential for the development of the pyrimidinediones as a first in class non-nucleoside inhibitor of HBV infection," said Dr. Buckheit, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of ImQuest Life Sciences. "These studies are also intriguing from the perspective of potential treatment options for patients co-infected with HBV and HIV."