How Can Targeted Antiviral Drug Therapy Be Used to Treat FIP?

"The question is how antiviral drugs can be used against FIP?" explains Niels Pedersen, DVM, PhD, professor emeritus, University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

"We're talking about drugs that target specific proteins that are produced by the virus that are concerned with how the virus replicates. And these are the same targets that are used to develop drugs against HIV, against hepatitis C virus, against Ebola, and other influenza viruses, and other viruses.

So what we're looking for are drugs that will specifically inhibit certain proteins of the virus that are essential for its replication in the cell. Now fortunately, FIP virus is a what we call an RNA virus and it's related to other RNA viruses that already have drugs developed against them. So, we have some of the same targets that are used for hepatitis C virus or for HIV are the same types of targets that we can use for FIP.

That is not to say you can use the same drugs, no you can't use the same drugs, you have to use drugs of the same class that are specifically screened for maximum efficacy against the virus and that are not toxic to the cat."