Antiviral Effect of Retro-2.1 against Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 In Vitro

Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection has been a public health concern worldwide. It is the leading cause of genital herpes and a contributing factor to cervical cancer and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. No vaccine is available yet for the treatment of HSV-2 infection, and routinely used synthetic nucleoside analogs have led to the emergence of drug resistance. The small molecule Retro-2^cycl has been reported to be active against several pathogens by acting on intracellular vesicle transport, which also participates in the HSV-2 lifecycle. Here, we showed that Retro-2.1, which is an optimized, more potent derivative of Retro-2^cycl, could inhibit HSV-2 infection, with 50% inhibitory concentrations of 5.58 μM and 6.35 μM in cytopathic effect inhibition and plaque reduction assays, respectively. The cytotoxicity of Retro-2.1 was relatively low, with a 50% cytotoxicity concentration of 116.5 μM. We also preliminarily identified that Retro-2.1 exerted the antiviral effect against HSV-2 by a dual mechanism of action on virus entry and late stages of infection. Therefore, our study for the first time demonstrated Retro-2.1 as an effective antiviral agent against HSV-2 in vitro with targets distinct from those of nucleoside analogs.