Hepatitis E is an underestimated disease, leading to estimated 20 million infections and up to 70,000 deaths annually. Infections are mostly asymptomatic, but can reach mortality rates up to 25% in pregnant women or become chronic in immunocompromised patients. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection have been associated with a range of extrahepatic manifestations, including a spectrum of neurological symptoms. Current therapy options are limited to non-specific antivirals like ribavirin, but recently, repurposed viral polymerase inhibitors like sofosbuvir and NITD008 were described to inhibit HEV replication. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of these drugs in various neuronal-derived cell lines to determine their potency outside the liver. Our findings indicate that both drugs, especially sofosbuvir, exhibited reduced efficacy in neuronal cells compared to hepatic cells. These results should be taken into account in the development of direct-acting antivirals for HEV and their potency at extrahepatic replication sites.

2024-01-01·BIO-PROTOCOL

An Improved Focus-Forming Assay for Determination of the Dengue Virus Titer

Article

作者: Mahid, Maharah ; Vasudevan, Subhash G ; Vasudevan, Subhash ; Chan, Kitti ; Mohd Mazlan, Muhammad Danial ; Mahid, Maharah Binte Abdul ; Watanabe, Satoru ; Sigmundsson, Kristmundur ; Bist, Pradeep ; Chan, Kitti Wing Ki ; Choy, Milly M ; Choy, Milly ; Mazlan, Muhammad Danial Bin Mohd

Dengue virus (DENV), a common and prevalent mosquito-borne endemic disease, is caused by four serotypes (DENV-1-4) and has spread rapidly on a global scale over the past decade. A crucial step in the development of antiviral therapeutics requires the utilization of in vitro cell-based techniques, such as plaque assays and focus-forming assays (FFA) for virus quantification. Vero cells have been widely used for FFA and plaque assay; however, there are instances when their efficacy and efficiency in the detection of certain clinical DENV isolates are low. Here, we showed that BHK-21 cells are more sensitive than Vero cells in the detection of all DENV-1-4 plaques and foci. In addition, we developed an improved FFA protocol for the quantification of all four DENV serotypes. Using a pan-flavivirus envelope (E) antibody, we reduce the possibility of false positives by defining a focus to consist of a minimum of eight infected cells. We outlined a protocol using the Operetta® high-content imaging system to automate the digital capture of these infected cells. A pipeline was also designed using the CellProfilerTM automated image analysis software to detect these foci. We then compare the results of the improved FFA with plaque assay. Notably, the improved FFA detected clear foci of the DENV-4 strain that does not form distinct plaques. We subsequently demonstrated the potential application of the improved FFA protocol in antiviral testing, utilizing a nucleoside inhibitor of DENV, NITD008 as a control. The protocol is amenable to a diverse array of applications, including high-throughput compound screening (HTS). Key features • An improved focus-forming assay that has the potential to quantify the DENV-4 strain, which was previously hard to plaque. • Improvements have been made to reduce the possibility of false positives. • Improved workflow using automated digital imaging process and counting of foci. • Applicable to antiviral compounds screening and is amenable to high-throughput screening.

2022-04-01·European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry1区 · 医学

Design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of novel 2′-methyl-2′-fluoro-6-methyl-7-alkynyl-7-deazapurine nucleoside analogs as anti-Zika virus agents

1区 · 医学

Article

作者: Zhu, Yujia ; Li, Mengfeng ; Lin, Cai ; Yuan, Jie ; Yu, Jianchen ; Zhang, Jiancun ; Duan, Anna ; Yao, Guoqiang

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus and outbreaks of ZIKV have been reported in Africa, Americas and other parts of the world lately. The ZIKV epidemic has received extensive attention due to its ability to cause serious medical consequences and complications such as microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome in recent years. Up to now, there are no specific treatments or vaccines available for ZIKV infection, which highlights the urgent need for developing new therapies. In this work, we designed and synthesized a series of novel 6-methyl-7-acetylenenyl-7-deazapurine nucleoside analogs as potential inhibitors of ZIKV replication. The biological activities against ZIKV replication were evaluated and the structure-activity relationship (SAR) was also studied. Among the compounds evaluated, nucleoside analog 38 (EC₅₀ = 2.8 ± 0.8 μM, EC₉₀ = 6.8 ± 2.3 μM) showed the most potent anti-ZIKV activity with low cytotoxicity (CC₅₀ = 54.1 ± 6.9 μM) in an A549 based cellular model. The inhibitory activity of 38 was about 5 times more potent than the positive control NITD008. Notably, 38 showed similar inhibition potency against different ZIKV strains (ZG-01 and MR766) in a variety of host cell types including SNB19, A549, Huh7, Vero. In addition, 38 (K_d = 1.87 μM) has a stronger affinity to ZIKV RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protein than NITD008 (K_d = 3.43 μM) in the non-phosphorylation assay. These results indicated that compound 38 may serve as a promising candidate in future anti-ZIKV drug discovery.

100 项与 NITD-008 相关的药物交易

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