Using breakthrough technology, Dr. John DeVincenzo, infectious disease investigator at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center and the Children's Foundation Research Center, is helping provide a better treatment option for patients suffering from respiratory syncytial virus, commonly known as RSV. Along with fellow researchers at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dr. DeVincenzo is developing a therapeutic to treat this highly contagious virus, which causes infection in both the upper and lower respiratory tract.

Typically, RSV results in cold-like symptoms, but it can lead to more serious respiratory illnesses, such as croup, pneumonia, bronchiolitis and, in extreme cases, death. RSV infects nearly every child by the age of two years and is a major cause of hospitalization due to respiratory infection in infants born prematurely, children with lung or congenital heart disease and the elderly.

Working with RNA interference, Dr. DeVincenzo and the Alynylam research team might soon have a new treatment for RSV.

"RNAi changes the paradigm of therapy and offers the prospect of developing a new kind of drug for challenging diseases like RSV," said Dr. DeVincenzo, associate professor of Pediatrics in the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Department of Infectious Diseases and associate professor in the Graduate School of Health Science Department of Molecular Science.

RNAi is a natural process of gene silencing that occurs in cells. According to DeVincenzo, many illnesses are caused or worsened by the overproduction or over-activity of a protein. In the past, most drugs to combat illnesses of this nature worked by targeting specific proteins. RNAi works upstream of proteins and prevents disease-causing proteins from being created.

The RNAi drug candidate being developed for RSV will be delivered directly to the lungs to target infected lung cells, thus specifically targeting the virus and preventing viral spread and further infection. Phase I clinical trials are expected to begin in the first half of 2006.

A leader in RNAi therapeutics, Alynylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. is based out of Cambridge, Mass. Dr. DeVincenzo began working with the company in November 2004 after they contacted asked him to join their team because of expertise with RSV.