Novel betulin dicarboxylic acid ester derivatives as potent antiviral agents: Design, synthesis, biological evaluation, structure-activity relationship and in-silico study

The search for new methods of antiviral therapy is primarily focused on the use of substances of natural origin. In this context, a triterpene compound, betulin 1, proved to be a good starting point for derivatization. Thirty-eight betulin acid ester derivatives were synthetized, characterized, and tested against DNA and RNA viruses. Several compounds exhibited 4- to 11-fold better activity against Enterovirus E (compound 5 EC₅₀: 10.3 μM) and 3- to 6-fold better activity against Human alphaherpesvirus 1 (HHV-1; compound 3c EC₅₀: 17.2 μM). Time-of-addition experiments showed that most of the active compounds acted in the later steps of the virus replication cycle (e.g., nucleic acid/protein synthesis). Further in-silico analysis confirmed in-vitro data and demonstrated that interactions between HHV-1 DNA polymerase and the most active compound, 3c, were more stable than interactions with the parent non-active betulin 1.