This contract is one part of the pre-clinical portion of the NIAID Antiviral Substances Program. The Program supports six separate awards to investigators who have developed animal models of viral infections which can be used to test the activity of antiviral agents in vivo. Compounds are evaluated for efficacy both therapeutically and prophylactically. Studies of drug toxicity and effects of drug treatment on the immune response to infection are also pursued. Combination chemotherapy studies are encouraged. The currently awarded series of contractors have at their disposal the following models: University of Alabama - herpes encephalitis in the mouse, neonatal herpes in the mouse, genital herpes in the guinea pig, murine cytomegalovirus in the mouse; Utah State University - influenza in the mouse; Baylor College of Medicine - respiratory syncytial, parainfluenza and measles viruses in the cotton rat; Massachusetts Eye Research Institute, varicella-zoster virus and human cytomegalovirus in the rabbit; Cincinnati Children's Hospital - genital herpes, neonatal herpes and cytomegalovirus in the guinea pig; and, University of Texas at Galveston - coxsackievirus in the mouse.
