Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 14, 2026

Engineering Antiviral Agents via Surface Plasmon Resonance
Published on: June 14, 2022
Asymmetric synthesis of host-directed inhibitors of myxoviruses
Terry W Moore1, Kasinath Sana, Dan Yan
1Emory Institute for Drug Development, Emory University, 1515 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Abstract:
High-throughput screening (HTS) previously identified benzimidazole 1 (JMN3-003) as a compound with broad antiviral activity against different influenza viruses and paramyxovirus strains. In pursuit of a lead compound from this series for development, we sought to increase both the potency and the aqueous solubility of 1. Lead optimization has achieved compounds with potent antiviral activity against a panel of myxovirus family members (EC(50) values in the low nanomolar range) and much improved aqueous solubilities relative to that of 1. Additionally, we have devised a robust synthetic strategy for preparing 1 and congeners in an enantio-enriched fashion, which has allowed us to demonstrate that the (S)-enantiomers are generally 7- to 110-fold more potent than the corresponding (R)-isomers.
Related Concept Videos
Inhibitors of Viral Protein Synthesis
Viruses with RNA Genomes
RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
Inhibitors of Bacterial Protein Synthesis
Inhibitors of Bacterial DNA Synthesis

