1. |
- Abdurakhmanov, Eldar, 1977-, et al.
(author)
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Biophysical Mode-of-Action and Selectivity Analysis of Allosteric Inhibitors of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Polymerase
- 2017
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 9:6
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Allosteric inhibitors of hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-structural protein 5B (NS5B) polymerase are effective for treatment of genotype 1, although their mode of action and potential to inhibit other isolates and genotypes are not well established. We have used biophysical techniques and a novel biosensor-based real-time polymerase assay to investigate the mode-of-action and selectivity of four inhibitors against enzyme from genotypes 1b (BK and Con1) and 3a. Two thumb inhibitors (lomibuvir and filibuvir) interacted with all three NS5B variants, although the affinities for the 3a enzyme were low. Of the two tested palm inhibitors (dasabuvir and nesbuvir), only dasabuvir interacted with the 1b variant, and nesbuvir interacted with NS5B 3a. Lomibuvir, filibuvir and dasabuvir stabilized the structure of the two 1b variants, but not the 3a enzyme. The thumb compounds interfered with the interaction between the enzyme and RNA and blocked the transition from initiation to elongation. The two allosteric inhibitor types have different inhibition mechanisms. Sequence and structure analysis revealed differences in the binding sites for 1b and 3a variants, explaining the poor effect against genotype 3a NS5B. The indirect mode-of-action needs to be considered when designing allosteric compounds. The current approach provides an efficient strategy for identifying and optimizing allosteric inhibitors targeting HCV genotype 3a.
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2. |
- Andersen, Petter I., et al.
(author)
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Novel Antiviral Activities of Obatoclax, Emetine, Niclosamide, Brequinar, and Homoharringtonine
- 2019
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI. - 1999-4915. ; 11:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Viruses are the major causes of acute and chronic infectious diseases in the world. According to the World Health Organization, there is an urgent need for better control of viral diseases. Repurposing existing antiviral agents from one viral disease to another could play a pivotal role in this process. Here, we identified novel activities of obatoclax and emetine against herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), echovirus 1 (EV1), human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) in cell cultures. Moreover, we demonstrated novel activities of emetine against influenza A virus (FLUAV), niclosamide against HSV-2, brequinar against human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), and homoharringtonine against EV1. Our findings may expand the spectrum of indications of these safe-in-man agents and reinforce the arsenal of available antiviral therapeutics pending the results of further in vitro and in vivo tests.
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3. |
- Aralaguppe, SG, et al.
(author)
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MiDRMpol: A High-Throughput Multiplexed Amplicon Sequencing Workflow to Quantify HIV-1 Drug Resistance Mutations against Protease, Reverse Transcriptase, and Integrase Inhibitors
- 2019
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 11:9
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The detection of drug resistance mutations (DRMs) in minor viral populations is of potential clinical importance. However, sophisticated computational infrastructure and competence for analysis of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data lack at most diagnostic laboratories. Thus, we have proposed a new pipeline, MiDRMpol, to quantify DRM from the HIV-1 pol region. The gag-vpu region of 87 plasma samples from HIV-infected individuals from three cohorts was amplified and sequenced by Illumina HiSeq2500. The sequence reads were adapter-trimmed, followed by analysis using in-house scripts. Samples from Swedish and Ethiopian cohorts were also sequenced by Sanger sequencing. The pipeline was validated against the online tool PASeq (Polymorphism Analysis by Sequencing). Based on an error rate of <1%, a value of >1% was set as reliable to consider a minor variant. Both pipelines detected the mutations in the dominant viral populations, while discrepancies were observed in minor viral populations. In five HIV-1 subtype C samples, minor mutations were detected at the <5% level by MiDRMpol but not by PASeq. MiDRMpol is a computationally as well as labor efficient bioinformatics pipeline for the detection of DRM from HTS data. It identifies minor viral populations (<20%) of DRMs. Our method can be incorporated into large-scale surveillance of HIV-1 DRM.
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4. |
- Banse, Pia, et al.
(author)
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CD81 receptor regions outside the large extracellular loop determine hepatitis C virus entry into hepatoma cells
- 2018
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 10:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hepatitis C virus (HCV) enters human hepatocytes using four essential entry factors, one of which is human CD81 (hCD81). The tetraspanin hCD81 contains a large extracellular loop (LEL), which interacts with the E2 glycoprotein of HCV. The role of the non-LEL regions of hCD81 (intracellular tails, four transmembrane domains, small extracellular loop and intracellular loop) is poorly understood. Here, we studied the contribution of these domains to HCV susceptibility of hepatoma cells by generating chimeras of related tetraspanins with the hCD81 LEL. Our results show that non-LEL regions in addition to the LEL determine susceptibility of cells to HCV. While closely related tetraspanins (X. tropicalis CD81 and D. rerio CD81) functionally complement hCD81 non-LEL regions, distantly related tetraspanins (C. elegans TSP9 amd D. melanogaster TSP96F) do not and tetraspanins with intermediate homology (hCD9) show an intermediate phenotype. Tetraspanin homology and susceptibility to HCV correlate positively. For some chimeras, infectivity correlates with surface expression. In contrast, the hCD9 chimera is fully surface expressed, binds HCV E2 glycoprotein but is impaired in HCV receptor function. We demonstrate that a cholesterol-coordinating glutamate residue in CD81, which hCD9 lacks, promotes HCV infection. This work highlights the hCD81 non-LEL regions as additional HCV susceptibility-determining factors.
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5. |
- Belak, Sandor
(author)
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Pan-European Study on the Prevalence of the Feline Leukaemia Virus Infection - Reported by the European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD Europe)
- 2019
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 11
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) is a retrovirus associated with fatal disease in progressively infected cats. While testing/removal and vaccination led to a decreased prevalence of FeLV, recently, this decrease has reportedly stagnated in some countries. This study aimed to prospectively determine the prevalence of FeLV viraemia in cats taken to veterinary facilities in 32 European countries. FeLV viral RNA was semiquantitatively detected in saliva, using RT-qPCR as a measure of viraemia. Risk and protective factors were assessed using an online questionnaire to report geographic, demographic, husbandry, FeLV vaccination, and clinical data. The overall prevalence of FeLV viraemia in cats visiting a veterinary facility, of which 10.4% were shelter and rescue cats, was 2.3% (141/6005; 95% CI: 2.0%-2.8%) with the highest prevalences in Portugal, Hungary, and Italy/Malta (5.7%-8.8%). Using multivariate analysis, seven risk factors (Southern Europe, male intact, 1-6 years of age, indoor and outdoor or outdoor-only living, living in a group of >= 5 cats, illness), and three protective factors (Northern Europe, Western Europe, pedigree cats) were identified. Using classification and regression tree (CART) analysis, the origin of cats in Europe, pedigree, and access to outdoors were important predictors of FeLV status. FeLV-infected sick cats shed more viral RNA than FeLV-infected healthy cats, and they suffered more frequently from anaemia, anorexia, and gingivitis/stomatitis than uninfected sick cats. Most cats had never been FeLV-vaccinated; vaccination rates were indirectly associated with the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In conclusion, we identified countries where FeLV was undetectable, demonstrating that the infection can be eradicated and highlighting those regions where awareness and prevention should be increased.
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6. |
- Blomström, Anne-Lie, et al.
(author)
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Characterisation of the Virome of Tonsils from Conventional Pigs and from Specific Pathogen-Free Pigs
- 2018
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Porcine respiratory disease is a multifactorial disease that can be influenced by a number of different microorganisms, as well as by non-infectious factors such as the management and environment of the animals. It is generally believed that the interaction between different infectious agents plays an important role in regard to respiratory diseases. Therefore, we used high-throughput sequencing combined with viral metagenomics to characterise the viral community of tonsil samples from pigs coming from a conventional herd with lesions in the respiratory tract at slaughter. In parallel, samples from specific pathogen-free pigs were also analysed. This study showed a variable co-infection rate in the different pigs. The differences were not seen at the group level but in individual pigs. Some viruses such as adenoviruses and certain picornaviruses could be found in most pigs, while others such as different parvoviruses and anelloviruses were only identified in a few pigs. In addition, the complete coding region of porcine parvovirus 7 was obtained, as were the complete genomes of two teschoviruses. The results from this study will aid in elucidating which viruses are circulating in both healthy pigs and in pigs associated with respiratory illness. This knowledge is needed for future investigations into the role of viral-viral interactions in relation to disease development.
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7. |
- Bulanova, Daria, et al.
(author)
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Antiviral Properties of Chemical Inhibitors of Cellular Anti-Apoptotic Bcl-2 Proteins
- 2017
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 9:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Viral diseases remain serious threats to public health because of the shortage of effective means of control. To combat the surge of viral diseases, new treatments are urgently needed. Here we show that small-molecules, which inhibit cellular anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins (Bcl-2i), induced the premature death of cells infected with different RNA or DNA viruses, whereas, at the same concentrations, no toxicity was observed in mock-infected cells. Moreover, these compounds limited viral replication and spread. Surprisingly, Bcl-2i also induced the premature apoptosis of cells transfected with viral RNA or plasmid DNA but not of mock-transfected cells. These results suggest that Bcl-2i sensitizes cells containing foreign RNA or DNA to apoptosis. A comparison of the toxicity, antiviral activity, and side effects of six Bcl-2i allowed us to select A-1155463 as an antiviral lead candidate. Thus, our results pave the way for the further development of Bcl-2i for the prevention and treatment of viral diseases.
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8. |
- Chandra, Naresh, 1987-, et al.
(author)
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Decoy Receptor Interactions as Novel Drug Targets against EKC-Causing Human Adenovirus
- 2019
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI. - 1999-4915. ; 11:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) is a severe ocular disease and can lead to visual impairment. Human adenovirus type-37 (HAdV-D37) is one of the major causative agents of EKC and uses sialic acid (SA)-containing glycans as cellular receptors. Currently, there are no approved antivirals available for the treatment of EKC. Recently, we have reported that sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) bind to HAdV-D37 via the fiber knob (FK) domain of the viral fiber protein and function as decoy receptors. Based on this finding, we speculated that GAG-mimetics may act as artificial decoy receptors and inhibit HAdV-D37 infection. Repurposing of approved drugs to identify new antivirals has drawn great attention in recent years. Here, we report the antiviral effect of suramin, a WHO-approved drug and a widely known GAG-mimetic, against HAdV-D37. Commercially available suramin analogs also show antiviral effects against HAdV-D37. We demonstrate that suramin exerts its antiviral activity by inhibiting the attachment of HAdV-D37 to cells. We also reveal that the antiviral effect of suramin is HAdV species-specific. Collectively, in this proof of concept study, we demonstrate for the first time that virus binding to a decoy receptor constitutes a novel and an unexplored target for antiviral drug development.
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9. |
- Chandra, Naresh, 1987-, et al.
(author)
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Sulfated Glycosaminoglycans as Viral Decoy Receptors for Human Adenovirus Type 37
- 2019
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI. - 1999-4915. ; 11:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Glycans on plasma membranes and in secretions play important roles in infection by many viruses. Species D human adenovirus type 37 (HAdV-D37) is a major cause of epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) and infects target cells by interacting with sialic acid (SA)-containing glycans via the fiber knob domain of the viral fiber protein. HAdV-D37 also interacts with sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), but the outcome of this interaction remains unknown. Here, we investigated the molecular requirements of HAdV-D37 fiber knob:GAG interactions using a GAG microarray and demonstrated that fiber knob interacts with a broad range of sulfated GAGs. These interactions were corroborated in cell-based assays and by surface plasmon resonance analysis. Removal of heparan sulfate (HS) and sulfate groups from human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells by heparinase III and sodium chlorate treatments, respectively, reduced HAdV-D37 binding to cells. Remarkably, removal of HS by heparinase III enhanced the virus infection. Our results suggest that interaction of HAdV-D37 with sulfated GAGs in secretions and on plasma membranes prevents/delays the virus binding to SA-containing receptors and inhibits subsequent infection. We also found abundant HS in the basement membrane of the human corneal epithelium, which may act as a barrier to sub-epithelial infection. Collectively, our findings provide novel insights into the role of GAGs as viral decoy receptors and highlight the therapeutic potential of GAGs and/or GAG-mimetics in HAdV-D37 infection.
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10. |
- Elduma, A. H., et al.
(author)
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A Single Lineage of Hepatitis E Virus Causes both Outbreaks and Sporadic Hepatitis in Sudan
- 2016
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In: Viruses. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4915. ; 8:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Few studies have reported sporadic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections during non-outbreak periods in Africa. In this study, the prevalence of HEV infection in Sudan was investigated in 432 patients with acute hepatitis from 12 localities in North Kordofan, and from 152 patients involved in smaller outbreaks of hepatitis in the neighbouring Darfur. HEV infection was diagnosed in 147 (25%) patients: 98 from Kordofan and 49 from Darfur. The mortality was 10%; six of the patients who died from the infection were pregnant women. HEV RNA was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in 38 (26%) patients: 22 from Kordofan and 16 from Darfur. Partial open reading frame (ORF) 1 and ORF2 were sequenced from HEV from nine and three patients, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Sudanese strains belonged to genotype 1 (HEV1), and confirmed the segregation of African HEV1 strains into one branch divergent from Asian HEV1. It also revealed that the Sudanese strains from this study and from an outbreak in 2004 formed a separate clade with a common ancestor, distinct from strains from the neighbouring Chad and Egypt. This HEV strain has thus spread in a large area of Sudan, where it has caused both sporadic hepatitis E and outbreaks from at least 2004 and onwards. These data demonstrate that hepatitis E is a constant, on-going public health problem in Sudan and that there is a need for hepatitis E surveillance, outbreak preparedness, and general improvements of the sanitation in these remote areas of the country.
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