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Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship, Activity Prediction, and Molecular Dynamics of Non-nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
Published on: May 9, 2025
Antiviral effects of simeprevir on multiple viruses
Zheng Li1, Fujia Yao1, Guang Xue1
1CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Virology & Immunology, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China.
Abstract:
Simeprevir was developed as a small molecular drug targeting the NS3/4A protease of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Unexpectedly, our current work discovered that Simeprevir effectively promoted the transcription of IFN-β and ISG15, inhibited the infection of host cells by multiple viruses including Zika virus (ZIKV), Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71), as well as herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). However, the inhibitory effects of Simeprevir on ZIKV, EV-A71 and HSV-1 were independent from IFN-β and ISG15. This study thus demonstrates that the application of Simeprevir can be extended to other viruses besides HCV.
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