Inhibiting pyrimidine biosynthesis impairs Ebola virus replication through depletion of nucleoside pools and activation of innate immune responses

Publication date: Available online 23 August 2018Source: Antiviral ResearchAuthor(s): Priya Luthra, Jacinth Naidoo, Colette A. Pietzsch, Sampriti De, Sudip Khadka, Manu Anantpadma, Caroline G. Williams, Megan R. Edwards, Robert A. Davey, Alexander Bukreyev, Joseph M. Ready, Christopher F. BaslerAbstractSpecific host pathways that may be targeted therapeutically to inhibit the replication of Ebola virus (EBOV) and other emerging viruses remain incompletely defined. A screen of 200,000 compounds for inhibition of an EBOV minigenome (MG) assay that measures the function of the viral polymerase complex identified as hits several compounds with an amino-tetrahydrocarbazole scaffold. This scaffold was structurally similar to GSK983, a compound previously described as having broad-spectrum antiviral activity due to its impairing de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis through inhibition of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). We generated compound SW835, the racemic version of GSK983 and demonstrated that SW835 and brequinar, another DHODH inhibitor, potently inhibit the MG assay and the replication of EBOV, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and Zika (ZIKV) in vitro. Nucleoside and deoxynucleoside supplementation studies demonstrated that depletion of pyrimidine pools contributes to antiviral activity of these compounds. As reported for other DHODH inhibitors, SW835 and brequinar also induced expression of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs). ISG induction was demonstrated to occur without p...
Source: Antiviral Therapy - Category: Virology Source Type: research