Inhibition of influenza A virus replication by compounds interfering with the fusogenic function of the viral hemagglutinin.

Several compounds that specifically inhibited replication of the H1 and H2 subtypes of influenza virus type A were identified by screening a chemical library for antiviral activity. In single-cycle infections, the compounds inhibited virus-specific protein synthesis when added before or immediately after infection but were ineffective when added 30 min later, suggesting that an uncoating step was blocked. Sequencing of hemagglutinin (HA) genes of several independent mutant viruses resistant to the compounds revealed single amino acid changes that clustered in the stem region of the HA trimer in and near the HA2 fusion peptide. One of the compounds, an N-substituted piperidine, could be docked in a pocket in this region by computer-assisted molecular modeling. This compound blocked the fusogenic activity of HA, as evidenced by its inhibition of low-pH-induced cell-cell fusion in infected cell monolayers. An analog which was more effective than the parent compound in inhibiting virus replication was synthesized. It was also more effective in blocking other manifestations of the low-pH-induced conformational change in HA, including virus inactivation, virus-induced hemolysis of erythrocytes, and susceptibility of the HA to proteolytic degradation. Both compounds inhibited viral protein synthesis and replication more effectively in cells infected with a virus mutated in its M2 protein than with wild-type virus. The possible functional relationship between M2 and HA suggested by these results is discussed.

Flavins inhibit human cytomegalovirus UL80 protease via disulfide bond formation.

Among the most potent inhibitors of human cytomegalovirus protease identified by random screening of a chemical library was 1,4-dihydro-7,8-dimethyl 6H-pyrimido[1,2-b]-1,2,4,5-tetrazin-6-one (1) (PTH2). The oxidized form (2), PT, which is present in solutions of PTH2, was shown to be the actual inhibitory species which irreversibly inactivates the protease; recycling of PTH2 by dissolved oxygen results in complete inhibition of the protease at substoichiometric amounts of compound. No evidence for a covalent adduct between the protease and the inhibitor was obtained, and protease activity was restored by incubation of the inactivated enzyme with the reducing agent bismercaptoethyl sulfone, suggesting that disulfide bond formation was responsible for the observed inhibition. The five cysteines of the protease are normally in the reduced state; analysis of tryptic peptides from inhibited protease indicated that disulfide bonds Cys84-Cys87 and Cys138-Cys161 were formed. Using site-directed mutagenesis, the disulfide pair induced between Cys138 and Cys161 disulfide is dependent upon interaction of PT with the protease and does not form spontaneously, unlike that of the Cys84-Cys87 pair which can form in the absence of inhibitor. The inhibitor's redox chemistry is analogous to that of flavin, and, in fact, flavin inhibits the protease by the same mechanism, causing formation of a disulfide bond between Cys138 and Cys161. That the cysteines are dispensable, but can regulate protease activity by formation of a unique disulfide pair, suggests a plausible mechanism for control of proteolysis during the viral life cycle.